Named for an endangered owl, Burrowing Owl is driven by the strongly held environmental values of founders Jim and Midge Wyse. (Their son, Chris, is now the winery's president and Chris's sister, Kerri McNolty, handles marketing and media.) Sustainable farming is practiced here, from returning skins and stems to the soil as compost to extensive drip irrigation, preserving the Okanagan's scarce water. In 2007, it was the first winery in Canada to start using a high-tech Italian sprayer designed to recapture liquid that does not end up on the vines, meaning a recovery of half the total spray that is normally wasted. The barrel cellar, buried under 16 feet of earth, is naturally cooled. Every visitor to Burrowing Owl is involved in the winery's environmentalism, as the modest tasting fee is applied to wildlife recovery programs. The winemaking is as commendable as the green ethic. The red wines are bold and fleshy. The barrel-fermented chardonnay and the tank-fermented pinot gris are defining Okanagan examples of these varietals.