Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with winemaker Patrick Murphy at 1909 Estate Winery in Langley. Patrick has been making wines for many years. You may recognize his name as one of the owners of Vista D’oro Farms & Winery in the Fraser Valley. He and his wife sold the winery in 2024, and he has been hired by 1908 Estate Winery in May this year to be their new winemaker.
The 1909 Estate Winery is currently undergoing a significant transition from its former identity as “Heritage Winery” to a 100% estate-grown model under the 1909 brand. Patrick is committed to “natural” winemaking, rejecting the corporate wines meant to please everybody. The winery currently has an outdoor picnic area.
I never thought I would say this in any of my wine articles, but the winery site itself is historically significant, formerly serving as Western Canada’s largest cattle artificial insemination (AI) centre. The original AI “data” centre. The current owners, the Matson family with daughter Shelly as the director and founder of the winery, purchased the facility and converted the massive barns and labs into winemaking spaces.
Moving forward, they aim to leverage its 30 acres of diverse plantings, including Minnesota hybrids and traditional European varieties, to establish a reputation for high-character, low-intervention wines. Key upcoming developments include the opening of a 120-seat bistro and the launch of a new branding initiative featuring original artwork by the ownership family.
Let’s get into a little more detail.
The 1909 Brand
The winery is moving away from its “Heritage” label to embrace the “1909 Estate Winery” brand. This rebranding is both historical and symbolic. The name “1909” refers to an original building on the property constructed by the Hudson’s Bay Company in that year. Patrick also noted that in a European context, the number 1909 is associated with “new beginnings” and “refreshed starts,” aligning with the winery’s current evolution. Last year was the first vintage using estate-grown grapes. And from now on, their focus will be to only make wines from estate-grown grapes.
Shelly is also an artist and the new wine labels will feature her original artwork, including pastoral scenes and custom designs, such as a recent label created for the Langley rodeo (that is on at the moment).
Viticulture and Vineyard Management
As we walked through the vineyard at the winery site, Patrick discussed the grape varieties and viticultural practices he will employ in the vineyards. The winery manages approximately 30 acres of vines spread across three distinct locations in the Fraser Valley.
The vineyard locations:
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Location
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Size
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Notable Varieties
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|---|---|---|
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Main Estate (1909 site)
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~4.5 acres
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Bacchus, Lucy Kuhlmann, Minnesota Hybrids
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216th Street
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14 acres
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Pinot Noir (two blocks), Lucy Kuhlmann
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212th Street
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13 acres
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Chasselas, Aligoté
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Varietal Diversity
The winery grows approximately 30 different varieties to suit the local climate and to minimize disease pressure. They grow disease-resistant hybrids like Bacchus, Siegerrebe, and Lucy Kuhlmann, and cold-hardy varieties such as Frontenac Gris, Frontenac Noir, and the rare Petite Pearl. They do also grow some vitis vinifera that does well in the cooler Fraser valley, including Chasselas, Aligoté, Pinot Noir, and Gamay.
The Petite Pearl sure has a small bunch size.
Management Practices
Patrick has implemented a shift toward sustainable viticulture. The winery will no longer use synthetic herbicides and fungicides in favour of organic sprays and less-toxic fungicides. The vineyard is maintained by a specialized team who focus on canopy management and manual harvesting. When it is time for harvest, Patrick walks through the 13 km of vineyard rows, collecting samples to be measured for sugar content. Canopy management is a strong component of their field management. Through meticulous hedging and leaf pulling, the team ensures filtered light and maximum airflow reach varieties like Bacchus and Lucy Kuhlmann. This mechanical disease resistance is essential in the Fraser Valley, where humidity can be the enemy of fruit set viability.
Winemaking Philosophy
Patrick’s approach is heavily influenced by “the godfather of natural wine,” Marcel Lapierre, although he was trained at UC Davis. This involves minimizing adjustments (such as adding potassium carbonate for pH) unless absolutely necessary. The goal is to “work with nature” rather than force a consistent, year-over-year flavour profile. He is interested in increasing focus on white grape skin soaks to bring up colour and character. He also favours the light use of oak so that it does not overpower the flavour of the grapes.
Winemaking Facilities and Processes
After walking through the adjacent vineyard to the winery, Patrick brought me through their winemaking facilities and then led me to the wine tasting room, where I tasted most of their current releases. The winemaking facilities are relatively modest and fit nicely into this one image.
- Pneumatic grape press (The large horizontal stainless steel cylinder on the left is used to gently press grapes after crushing or, depending on the winemaking style, whole bunches. A pneumatic bladder inside the press inflates to extract juice while minimizing damage to skin.)
- Grape receiving hopper (to the right of the grape press, receives harvested grapes. It provides a convenient loading point before the grapes move into the processing equipment.)
- Grape conveyor/elevator (The inclined conveyor attached to the hopper transports grapes upward into the next stage of processing. This helps reduce manual handling of the fruit.)
- Destemmer-crusher (behind the hopper and conveyor to remove grape stems.)
- Sorting table or processing conveyor (The lower stainless steel table-like equipment allows grapes or clusters to be moved along for inspection and sorting. Winery staff can remove leaves, damaged fruit, or other unwanted material.)
- Temperature-controlled stainless steel fermentation tanks (The tall upright stainless steel tanks along the back wall are used for fermenting grape juice into wine. Their cooling jackets and fittings can help the winemaker control fermentation temperature and manage the wine.)
- Open-top stainless steel tanks (on the right side of the image for primary fermentation, but also may be used after fermentation for settling, blending, storage, or maturation before bottling.)
I did not see the bottling equipment line or the barrel room, but I do know that they use French and Hungarian oak barrels.
My Wine Tasting Notes
I tasted two white wines and four red wines from the last vintage, which was made by the previous winemaker. This year’s vintage will be the first made by Patrick Murphy for the winery and I will hopefully get to try them next year and onward. You can buy these wines at the winery and online via their website.
1909 Estate Winery Heritage White 2023 (BC $21) – a blend of Gruner Veltliner and Riesling. A very light apple and floral nose. Dry, medium body with a soft mouthfeel. Medium acidity. Crisp apple and sweet spices on the palate. Medium-plus length finishing with apple skin dryness. 
1909 Estate Winery Heritage Blend 2023 (BC $20.25) – a blend of Madeleine Angevine, and Gewurztraminer. A similar nose the to the Heritage White plus sweet spices. It has a light body with a soft, lean mouthfeel. Light apple and sweet spices on the palate, plus maybe a touch of floral. A crisp and dry finish with some drying tannins.
1909 Estate Winery Le Bisous du Matin 2023 (BC $19) – Madeleine Angevine, Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir, and Maechal Foch. Pale orange-rose petal colour. Some matchstick and petrol notes on the nose. Dry, smooth and soft, with a light mouthfeel. Light flavours of strawberries and red fruits, and a touch of petrol. Between medium to medium-plus acidity.
1909 Estate Winery Le Bisous du Soir 2023 (BC $19.50) – Madeleine Angevine, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. A deeper orange-rose petal colour. Strong burnt matchstick nose. Medium body, with a thicker mouthfeel. Medium acidity and light tannins. Raspberries and matchstick on the palate.
1909 Estate Winery La Revolution 2023 (BC $27) – Gamay Noir, Pinot Noir, and Marechal Foch. A medium intensity, clear garnet colour. Nice light sweet cherry, floral and sweet spice nose. Dry, medium-minus body. Medium acidity. Medium tannins get stronger from the mid-palate to the finish. Nice floral, red cherries, and sweet spice flavours. Medium-plus to long length. 
1909 Estate Winery Terre Sauvage 2023 (BC $28.75) – Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. A deeper, dull garnet colour in the glass. Light aromas of dried cherries and blackberries. Medium to medium-plus body, dry with a nice, smooth and round mouthfeel. Medium acidity and tannins. Ripe black fruit flavours, sweet spices and touches of floral and black pepper. Medium to long length, finishing with puckering and drying tannins. Ripe black fruit and flroal on the finish.
You may notice the French names for some of the wines. The previous winemaker was French and moved back to France. Le Bisous means a “playful kiss” in French. du Matin means “in the morning” and du Soir, means “in the evening”.
As wine production, starting with the current harvest, focuses on 100% estate grapes, all of the above wines will no longer be exactly the same. The names may stay, but the grape varieties used to make these blends will be different. For example, Petit Verdot, is a very heat-loving grape that can only grow in the warmest areas of the south Okanagan, not in the cool, Fraser Valley climate, so this grape will not be in any future blends.
You currently will only be able to purchase these wines from the winery. Best of luck to 1909 Estate Winery as it grows through its initial phase with its three estate vineyards, learning more about how the grape varieties manage in each site and the optimum times to pick the grapes for wine production. Thank you to winemaker Patrick Murphy for the time he spent with me going through the winery and allowing me to sample their wines.
