Matt Dumayne

Hop on any of the recent trends in the B.C. wine industry and odds are Matt Dumayne has had a hand in its genesis. Crafting wine in huge concrete eggs? His Haywire Pinot Gris was the pioneer. Native ferments? His Haywire Native Ferments. Orange wine? His work at Vancouver Island’s 40 Knots and the current work at Fraser Valley’s Singletree. Natural wine? Haywire’s Free Form. But the irony is that the gregarious Kiwi—who, after making his own wine in New Zealand, spent time working in Australia, Oregon and California before landing here—is anything but trendy, preferring instead to focus his considerable winemaking skills on searching for the truest expression of the grapes he works with. It’s why he can on one hand make the priciest, most ambitious pinot noir in the province (Mirabel Vineyards) and on the other nerd out on crown-capped sparkling chardonnay made in the hip Pét-Nat method (Narrative Ancient Method) and both examples will be memorable . . . like pretty much everything else he touches.—