Our Story

Our story is one that has been etched out of tradition and flavored with passion. It is the story of a love affair that began in 1783 when Christian Schales planted his first grapes in the small Rheinhessen Village of Dalsheim. And today, 8 generations later, the story continues in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. Armed with generations of winemaking and grape growing experience behind them and his grandfather’s winepress, Bernd and Stefanie Schales left Germany May 2003 in search of a new adventure and a new chapter for their next generation.

Sounds like a fairytale so far? Well that all changed when we bought our first 11 acre vineyard property 3 weeks later in Okanagan Falls. We moved into the house, grew the grapes & sold them to different wineries in the Okanagan while we learned about the hot summers, cool nights and sometimes frigid winter conditions here in Canada. But the farming concept worked for the next couple years till (in the view of our neighbour) “these crazy kids” got a bit bored and mingled with the idea of starting a winery.

We acquired the Summerland property 2007 (which included 7 acres of vineyard and the winery warehouse) and processed our first vintage 5 weeks later. 8th Generation is a hands on and true Family winery.

Since then we have expanded our properties to another two locations, one in Naramata and one apple orchard beside the existing winery location. All of them are unique and all of them are self managed by us.

In 2021 we refocused, streamlined to the 2 Summerland properties and narrowed the team down to Bernd & Stefanie, beside the seasonal help in vineyard and wine shop.