Peter and Kajsa Henricsson.

Our first sip of Henricsson Chardonnay was a revelation. Wait—this is from BC? Rich yet lithe, with acidity and texture dancing in perfect harmony, it was a wine that stopped us mid-sentence. Moments later, their Pinot Noir poured into our glass and again: stunned silence, followed by disbelief. How had we never heard of these wines? How were more people not talking about them?

As we mapped out our next trip to the Okanagan, Peter and Kajsa Henricsson quickly rose to the top of our must-meet list. When we reached out, they replied almost apologetically: there was no formal tasting room, no scheduled hours. But if we were willing, we could share a bottle at the vineyard with them. It was, to us, the perfect invitation.

What we found wasn’t curated for social media or staged for spectacle. It was quiet, intentional, and real.

Henricsson Vineyard.

An unmarked driveway winds up to the vines before reaching the home Peter and Kajsa now share with their young daughter, Sofia. The vineyard surrounds their house, and on the day of our visit, we sat within arm’s reach of the vines, tasting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from current and library vintages as the breeze blew from the lake below.

There’s no sleek cellar door or dramatic architecture here. But what is here, what fills every bottle, is a sense of purpose and place so compelling that it lingers long after the last sip.

A good start to the growing season.

The Henricssons bought the vineyard in 2013, but its story stretches further back. Originally planted in 1990, this special site in Naramata was once the fruit source for some of Foxtrot Vineyards’ most acclaimed wines. Back then, it was known as Erickson Vineyard.

Peter Henricsson, a lifelong wine enthusiast and tech entrepreneur (and former decathlete who once competed against Bruce Jenner), wasn’t looking to become a vintner. But that changed thanks to his friend, and Foxtrot founder, Torsten Allander.

“He stood right there,” Peter pointed close to where we were standing, “and said: ‘Look at this view. You’re never going to lose money on this. We’ll take care of everything. You just enjoy the summers.’” Peter then adds with a laugh, “He tricked me into it!”

Why not?

But when Peter and Kajsa would visit the site, it was clear the vineyard needed love. With Peter’s encyclopedic wine knowledge, gathered over decades of talking to winemakers around the world, and Kajsa’s background in art and agriculture, they made a decision. “We figured, why don’t we make the wine?”

And they haven’t looked back.

The vineyard is now planted exclusively to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, with three different clones of Pinot and a Chardonnay block tucked behind the house. Their first vintage was released in 2015. Today, Henricsson Vineyard produces just 300 to 500 cases annually. Every bottle is hand-dipped in wax and hand-stamped. These details not only speak to their care and scale, but also to their ethos: slow, thoughtful, deeply personal.

The view of the lake.

“We’re not certified organic,” Kajsa explains, “but we farm organically. Partly because of our daughter—she eats grass and dirt out here,” she laughs. “And partly because we believe in letting the vineyard develop its own immunity. If you treat it like the human body, always throwing antibiotics at it, eventually it won’t fight for itself.”

They use no pesticides and rely on practices like deficit irrigation and early leaf-thinning to encourage vine and grape skin resilience. “We pick based on flavour, not sugar,” she says. “Sometimes the brix are there, but the pits are still green and that can make the wine taste bitter.”

Peter concurs, “You have to wait for everything to be in sync.”

That quest for balance runs through everything they do. From how they farm, to how they blend, to how they approach oak. Every Pinot Noir lot is vinified separately, with decisions about aging made not by formula but by feel.

2017 Henricsson Deux Hivers Pinot Noir.

They bottle two distinct expressions: Première, aged one year in oak, and Deux Hivers, aged two. The wine is the same at the start, but after one year, they taste, discuss, and decide whether to bottle or continue aging. The results are illuminating.

Their Chardonnay is textural, precise, unfined and unfiltered. It’s made using a method borrowed from Napa legend John Kongsgaard. After pressing hard to extract phenolics, they allow the juice to oxidize in a steel tank for several days before barreling down. It’s called “browning the juice,” and while it might raise eyebrows in some conventional cellars, the result in the glass is vivid, layered, and full of soul.

“We decided if we were going to do this,” Kajsa says, “we were going to try to make the best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay we could. There was no other option for us.”

A sensational sparkling wine debut.

Recently, they added a sparkling wine project named Sofia, in honour of their daughter, born after harvest in 2018. What started as a fun personal project turned into something more when they ended up with more wine than expected and shared it with friends who loved it.

Made in the traditional method, it’s a 50/50 blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with five hours of skin contact and no dosage. Disgorged in September 2023, it’s surprisingly plush for a zero-dosage wine, yet still bracingly dry and elegant. They debuted it at an event at the Vancouver Club, and it was gone almost as quickly as it appeared.

Henricsson Vineyard may be one of the most under-the-radar wineries in the Okanagan, but the wines themselves speak volumes. They are exacting without being clinical and expressive without being showy.

An afternoon well spent.

They feel like a reflection of the people who made them: practical, curious, grounded, and intensely devoted to the pursuit of excellence.

It would be easy to call their story a fairytale. But the truth is, it’s not about magic. It’s about conviction. About listening, both to the land and to each other. And it’s about believing that even the smallest vineyard, when cared for with this kind of intention, can produce wines of profound depth and beauty.

You won’t see their name on billboards or find their bottles save for a select few private liquor stores and restaurants. But if you’re lucky enough to share a bottle with the Henricssons within sight of the vines, it’ll be an experience that stays with you. Because at Henricsson Vineyard, everything begins with one simple question…why not?

Tasting Notes

2021 Henricsson Kajsa Chardonnay

2021 Henricsson Kajsa Chardonnay.

This is just so intense, so full of great Chardonnay flavours of pear, apples alongside some very tasty barrel notes of caramel and finished off with some zesty citrus. And like all great Chardonnays, it has a mineral streak that plays a great counterpoint to those barrel notes. The body is medium+ to full and there is a fantastic texture which is mouth coating and viscous but in no way cloying. The finish goes on and on and lingers in your mouth for close to a minute. This wine really has it all: the mouthfeel, the structure, the complexity and all in just the right proportions. This Chardonnay is the pride of the Okanagan and would stand tall in a line up of top Chardonnays from anywhere. Extraordinary

2019 Henricsson Chardonnay

2019 Henricsson Kajsa Chardonnay.

Similar to its younger brother, it has that same great intensity. Here the accent might be more on the citrus and less on the barrel notes but it has that same minerality. The ’19 shows more elegance compared to the ’21 showing power. Hints of almonds play in the long finish. Excellent+

2019 Henricsson Sophia Sparkling Wine

A lovely copper/orange colour in the glass. This is a blend of 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir. This is a powerful sparkling wine and shows notes of red and green apple and citrus notes. There is plenty of body to this wine. We were very surprised to learn this was made with zero dosage. Bubbles are fine and persistent. Definitely one of the best sparkling wines made outside Champagne that we have encountered. Excellent

2017 Première Pinot Noir

2017 Première Pinot Noir.

Deep red in colour, we get lovely aromas of cherry and earth. On the palate there is medium+ body and medium+ acidity and a lovely black cherry fruit profile. The wine’s structural components match the fruit and provide some lift to the earth and forest notes. This provides a hint of a rustic touch, in a good way, and speaks to authenticity as opposed to that polished style of Pinot Noir that in our opinion has become too prevalent. Excellent

2017 Deux Hivers Pinot Noir

An extra year in oak really turns up the dials with this Pinot Noir. With Deux Hivers there is a bit more texture, a bit more body and a bit more intensity. The black cherry flavour dominates again in this wine but some added baking spice notes. There is just a slight hint of black forest cake flavours which are kept in line with the earth tones and the minerality. Again, not just among the finest examples of BC Pinot Noir, this is another wine that could be a ringer in a blind tasting of wines that sell for multiples of its price. Excellent+

Henricsson Vineyard