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It's a bittersweet day for House of Rose Winery co-owner Aura Rose.
She's excited the Kelowna winery has sold so she and her husband, co-owner Wouter van der Hall, can retire, downsize and spend their winters in the tropics.
But, she's a little disappointed the new owners won't be operating a winery anymore on the property at 2270 Garner Rd.
"I was hoping they'd continue with the winery and the live-music events and picnics we've held here over the years," said Rose.
"But it's not to be."
Rose is not disclosing how much the property sold for or the name of the couple that bought the property, simply saying that they are local.
The property includes seven acres of vineyard, a house, winery production facility and tasting room and shop.
The new owners are expected to continue to grow grapes and sell them to other wineries.
But they aren't interested in having a winery on the property.
The House of Rose sale did, and didn't, come together quickly.
Rose and van der Hall put the winery, house and land up for sale four years ago.
But serious interest didn't materialize until late October and then the buyers wanted to take possession quickly on Dec. 23.
Rose and van der Hall took that as their cue to leave for 14 weeks in Mexico on Dec. 23.
In the meantime, Rose and van der Hall will keep the tasting room and shop open until Dec. 12 to blow out wine stock.
A mix-and-match case of wine is discounted by 30%, buy two or more cases and the price is slashed by 40%.
Special-priced wine can also be purchased online for delivery at HouseOfRose.ca.
Rose and van der Hall will also lease back the winery building until April from the new owners.
There's still lots of wines from the 2021 harvest and earlier harvests in tanks.
"That bulk wine is tentatively sold to another winery," said Rose.
"We'll keep on selling the wine we already have bottled and stores will continue to sell House of Rose wines until it runs out. But then, when it's gone that's it for House of Rose wines. We're going to miss seeing our regular customers at the wine shop and our live-music and picnic events. For a lot of those people, we were their favourite winery."
House of Rose was the 17th estate winery to open in BC when it started selling wines in 1993.
It was launched by Aura's dad, Vern Rose, who retired from teaching school in Edmonton and moved to Kelowna to buy the vineyard in 1986.
Aura and her husband bought the winery from her dad in 2009 so he could retire at the age of 82.
Vern passed away in 2018 at the age of 91.
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