Paul and Cristina Brunner grew up in big families with international roots. Their daughter, Paula, studies engineering in Scotland, nurturing her love of music as a member of the acclaimed Les Sirènes Female Chamber Choir.

The family’s shared interest in stewardship stems from Paul’s self-proclaimed need to repent (after a life in mining, he’s going green), Cristina’s passion for endless landscapes (to paint, photograph and inspire) and Paula’s desire to practice arias (unimpeded by neighbours). This, combined with a wish to be closer to family, brought the Brunners back to Vancouver Island and ownership of the Blue Grouse Estate Winery.

Bailey Williamson spent a good part of his life pursuing a passion for the culinary arts. In 1993, he relocated to Victoria and became a noted proponent of the farm-to-table movement.

After about 10 years in kitchens across Canada, Bailey made a change and started working his way, from the bottom up, at several wineries. He spent five years as assistant winemaker at Road 13 Vineyards in the Okanagan, leading its sparkling wine program, before accepting the call to serve as Blue Grouse Estate Winery’s winemaker. He guides the estate wine portfolio and helped launch the popular Quill label.

Jenny, the glue that holds the team together, serves as office and administration manager for Blue Grouse Estate Winery. She grew up in Wenatchee, Washington, but took off to Seattle to attend culinary school. Whereupon, she became a high-tech poster child, working at Amazon in its infancy (packing boxes next to Jeff Bezos), as well as at Starbucks and Microsoft.

Jenny later headed back to Wenatchee and worked as GM for St. Laurent Estate Winery. A blind date led Jenny to marry Bailey Williamson, winemaker extraordinaire, and move to Canada. Today, the Garlini-Williamson clan lead the winery team’s day-to-day activities.

Michael Abbott is a locally grown ecologist who has been working with soil and organic farming for the last ten years. He grew up on Cowichan Valley’s Cheese Pointe Farm and was an active participant of Cowichan Bay’s slow food revolution.

Passion for life manifested itself in Michael, when he pursued a degree in Ecology that found him fishing for tuna on the high seas, looking for bees in the Amazon and guiding research expeditions along remote coasts.

Naturally adventurous he took on the challenge of becoming Blue Grouse’s vineyard manager in the Spring of 2017 after having settled back on Vancouver Island to work as a falconer and organically farm vegetables with his wife.