When Sandra Oldfield moved from California to B.C.’s Okanagan region in the mid-1990s, she brought with her a desire to both become a Canadian and make terrific wine.

Today, Oldfield is not only a proud citizen of Canada, but the owner/operator of Tinhorn Creek, an award-winning winery in Oliver that produces 35,000 cases of wine each year, up from 1,000 when she started out in 1995.

But Tinhorn Creek — jointly owned by Oldfield, her husband Kenn Oldfield, and Bob and Bar Shaunessy — is also among a growing number of B.C. wineries that are owned, co-owned, operated, re-branded, or acquired and expanded by women vintners.

Because of that, Oldfield and other women entrepreneurs are being celebrated later today by the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE) in downtown Vancouver for their work in growing and innovating B.C.’s wine industry, which had total sales of $194 million last year.

Today’s gala, entitled All About Wine, will be attended by Premier Gordon Campbell and 450 local business leaders.

“I’m from California and I was raised with wine,” Oldfield said in an interview. “I got a degree in [winemaking] at the University of California in Davis. I had a degree in business as well.”

Oldfield met her husband in California and moved to B.C. to build the winery with him and their two partners. Today, she’s head of operations and oversees everything at the winery, except the financial side.

“It’s funny, but I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing,” Oldfield recalled about first starting out. “There was a lot of learning on our feet. When I first got here, I couldn’t think of one female viticulturalist [growers of grapes for wine]. They were all men.

“It was very old school, old world. Some didn’t even like women working in the vineyards.”

She said that while the number of women in B.C. wineries has grown since then, she’d like to see more.

FWE chair and founder Christina Anthony said in an interview that her organization is focusing on the B.C. wine industry this year because of its growing reputation.

“We’re reaching out to this industry because we feel there’s significant innovation and drive that women entrepreneurs in the wine industry are showing. We looked at about 100 wineries [and] formed a list of 54 women who own or co-own wineries where they’re actually involved in driving the business.”

Anthony said there have been many industry innovations in B.C. either introduced or expanded by women.

She said Tinhorn Creek, for example, was the first winery in Canada to fully convert to stelvin screw caps and that Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars in Okanagan Falls, owned by the Mavety family including Jane and Christie Mavety, is experimenting with high-density grape growth to enhance flavours.

And Judie Barta launched Kelowna’s Meadow Vista Honey Wines, an organic honey winery that produces Canada’s first sparkling organic honey wine.

She said women in the industry have been at the forefront of introducing such concepts as bed and breakfast facilities, restaurants, and entertainment at wineries.

She said some women are building high growth wine businesses, while others are serial entrepreneurs, selling businesses and building new ones.

She cited Prudence Mahrer, who co-founded the winery Red Rooster, sold it to Peller Estates after growing it to over 16,000 cases a year, and then started the already successful Ruby Tuesday winery. “She’s such an entrepreneur that she’s now even selling shoes at the winery.”

Anthony said women are also making career changes to the wine industry, including certified general accountant Evelyn Campbell who rebranded Prpich Hills to become Blasted Church in Okanagan Falls, which produces 18,000 cases annually.

Anthony noted Campbell’s “daring and creative labels” are on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

And Judy Kingston, who owns Serendipity Estate Winery in Naramata with David O’Kell, is a lawyer by profession who moved from Toronto to Naramata in 2006 to establish the winery.

B.C.’s wine industry also has a legacy of multi-generational wineries, with many more women taking over the family business this way.

Jennifer Molgat was a teacher on maternity leave when her father Chris Turton asked her to develop The View Winery on the family farm in south Kelowna. The winery opened in 2006 and has produced several award-winning wines.

Molgat, a certified level 2 sommelier who usually makes wine deliveries herself, said in an interview that her boutique winery produced 500 cases in 2007, but has grown steadily to where she expects it to have 2,000 cases this year. “We’re doing a dry Riesling for the first time.

“And we’re hoping to get to 5,000 cases in a few years.”

Wine Institute of B.C. spokeswoman Lindsay Kelm said in an interview that a lot more women are entering an industry that was previously thought of as a male profession.

Kelm also said that the University of B.C.’s Okanagan campus and Okanagan College offer winemaking and viticulture programs, “and there’s a surge of women involvement.”

bmorton@vancouversun.com