Sukhwinder Dhaliwal and Balwinder Dhaliwal
Sukhwinder Dhaliwal and Balwinder Dhaliwal are the founder-owners of Kismet Estate Winery, a wine club situated at Oliver in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Kismet Estate Winery is one of the largest family-owned estate wineries in the Okanagan. They grow grapes on nearly 500 acres of land.
The Beginning
Sukhwinder Dhaliwal and Balwinder Dhaliwal, the two brothers from Moga,Punjab started their overseas journey in 1991 when they settled in Oliver, Canada. Sukhwinder Dhaliwal, the oldest of two brothers arrived first in 1991 and worked at the Covert Farms. When Balwinder, his parents, and sister came in 1993, they worked for other vineyards, including Black Sage.
They purchased their first bare-land piece of property in 1996 where they started growing apples. They fatefully switched over to grapes in 1999 and began selling to Arterra (Jackson Triggs).
Opening the Winery
By 2008, the Dhaliwals owned close to 200 acres of land. It was a lot to handle while working for other vineyards, so the brothers stopped working for others to focus on their own business. By 2010, they were producing 300 – 400 tonnes of fruit and selling to ten different wineries.
Demand for them to grow more grapes increased. They continued to buy and lease more land but with so many vineyards it also meant that they produced excess fruit. They needed a backup plan.
Rather than sell the excess grapes for cheap and ruin the market value, Sukhi and Balwinder decided it was time to make their own wine. Besides, other wineries were winning awards from their fruit.
In 2011, Kismet Estate Winery produced 500 cases of red wine. In 2012, they made enough red and white wine to open the tasting room in 2013.
Award-Winning Wine
Every year, Kismet Estate Wineries wins awards for their wines. This year in the All-Canadian Wine Championship Awards they won Double Gold for their 2018 Syrah and 2019 Pino Grigio.
They also won eight other awards at the National level this year, including Gold for the 2017 Syrah Reserve and 2017 Cabernet Franc Reserve; Silver for their 2018 Sparkling Muscat, 2019 Safed, and 2018 Karma; and Bronze for their 2018 Mantra, 2018 Voignier-Roussanne, and 2019 Infinity Rose.