As subsistence farmers in Punjab, Sukhi Dhaliwal’s parents were so poor, they sent him to live with an uncle in another town. Now, along with his brother Balwinder, he owns Kismet Estate Winery and is one of the largest wine grape growers in British Columbia’s Okanagan region.
This tale of rags to rosé is a common one among the dozen-plus Okanagan wineries owned by Punjabi immigrants and their descendants. In the early 1980s, anti-Sikh policies and violence in India made Punjab an increasingly difficult and dangerous place to live. Punjabi immigration to B.C. was already common, and in the Okanagan, new arrivals found familiar aspects to the region: The Okanagan stretches north from the U.S. border into British Columbia’s interior, along a fertile river valley about 160 miles east of Vancouver; Punjab, which means “land of five rivers,” stretches south from the Pakistani border and grows much of India’s food.
When Dhaliwal arrived in Canada in 1991, the then 21-year-old spoke no English and had no education past age 10, except what every Punjabi child learned: how to grow food.
“Being from Punjab, that’s what we can do, better than anything else,” says Karnail Singh Sidhu, owner of Kalala Organic Estate Winery. “My dad, his dad, as far back as you go, they were farmers. Farming is in our blood.” Many newly arrived Indo-Canadians, like Singh and Dhaliwal, entered the wine industry as fruit pickers. But their deep agricultural knowledge, diligent work and tight communities have, over the years, changed the face (both physically and metaphorically) of B.C.’s most important wine region.
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But even in the agricultural sector, Singh adds, job interviewers often dismissed him for perceived lack of experience: Thousands of years of agricultural identity didn’t translate. “We collect that knowledge unknowingly,” he says, comparing it to computer skills for the digital native generation. “Every day, helping your mom and dad, from a young age. No university can teach that.”
Once he finally found a steady job, his hard work and skills carried him up to supervisory positions, then into vineyard management. But to cross into winery operations, there was only one option: buy land and build a facility of his own— which he has now done many times over, most recently acquiring Little Straw Vineyards in 2021.
Sant and Gurbachan Gill, owners of Gold Hill Winery, found the same, though less deliberately. They purchased a fruit orchard in 1995, but by 2009, the strength of the Canadian dollar ate the export market and flooded U.S. fruit across the border, so they converted entirely to vineyards. When neighboring wineries won awards for bottles made from their fruit, it inspired the Gills to make their own.
It wasn’t always easy for Indo-Canadians to be the face of their wine businesses. “We don’t get involved,” Singh says, especially at grower meetings, industry conferences and events. “People don’t value your opinion or want to hear you,” he says, and it led to many winery owners keeping quiet and staying behind the scenes.
But the next generation is changing that. At his daughter’s urging, Balwinder Dhaliwal shares wine wisdom each week on Instagram. Singh now sees more Punjabi faces at local industry events. And at Gold Hill, second-generation Navi Gill has stepped in as tasting room manager.
Wine isn’t traditionally part of Punjabi culture, but family is the heart of it, and the next generation of Indo-Canadian winemakers bridges that gap. Navi Gill grew up watching his dad leave before dawn to work in the vineyards and return after dark, covered in dirt. “There’s 24 acres here, and a lot of struggle went into it,” he says. “My goal is, I’m the second generation, and hopefully I can pass it down to the third.”
This article originally appeared in the October 2023 issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click here to subscribe today!
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Last Updated: September 25, 2023