This Labour Day weekend is the last long holiday weekend of the summer and features four winemakers preparing for the upcoming harvest. Leandro Nosal, Winemaker at Tinhorn Creek, is from a four-generation winemaking family in Mendoza. He has a degree in Agricultural Engineering and experience working in several wine regions worldwide, such as Bordeaux (France), Catalunya (Spain), Piedmont (Italy), California, Mexico’s Valle de Guadalupe, Niagara (Canada), Marlborough (New Zealand), and the Okanagan. Dave Marchand, Winemaker at Lastella Winery, established his background in wine through work in the hospitality sector, including roles as Wine Director at Vancouver restaurants like CinCin, Fraîche, Le Crocodile, and Après 2. His experience includes time at Panther Creek Cellars in McMinnville, Oregon (now Elizabeth Chambers Cellars). He currently oversees production at La Stella. John Weber, Winemaker at Orofino Vineyards, co-founded Orofino Winery in the Similkameen Valley with his wife Virginia, who previously worked as a nurse. They moved from southern Saskatchewan, purchased a vineyard in Cawston in 2001, and set up Canada’s only straw-bale winery. They have been producing wine in the region for nearly 25 years. Maurizio Maurizi is part of a new generation of Italian wine professionals. Born in 1983 into a family of winegrowers in the Marche region, he studied Viticulture & Enology at the University of Florence. Maurizi began his career at a co-operative winery in Ascoli Piceno and joined the Mezzacorona group as an agronomist’s assistant in 2006, which included work in Sicily and Trentino. He currently manages winemaking operations and supervises over 400 growers supplying grapes to Mezzacorona in northern Italy.