Who We Are
Stoneboat is entirely family owned and operated. Our hands guide the entire winegrowing cycle:
we grow our own vines from cuttings, see the vines through harvest and make our wines from their fruit.
Julie and Lanny Martiniuk - Owners
Pursuing careers in Vancouver when they decided to leave the hustle and bustle of the lower mainland and move to the Okanagan Valley, where Julie was born and raised. Hoping to buy a vineyard with their savings, Julie and Lanny left Vancouver with a truck, a dog and some furniture. Because no vineyard land was for sale, they settled for a 15-acre orchard on the Black Sage and bought it on a handshake in 1979. Lanny left his career in nuclear medicine to farm it, while Julie continued practicing pharmacy.
During the formative years of the BC wine industry, Lanny served as director of the BC Grape Growers Association for a decade, chair of the Grape Marketing Board, and, as a founding director of the BC Wine Institute, was a pioneer in revitalizing the industry after free trade and the grape pullout of 1988. Lanny is also a successful grapevine propagator and has grown millions of vines for vineyards all over BC.
30 years and three children later, the Martiniuks have expanded their original 15 acres to nearly 50, and are busier than ever with the winery. Julie's background in pharmacy has prepared her well for much of the winery's lab work, and when she's not analyzing samples, she can be found in the wine shop pouring for guests. Lanny, a grape grower first and foremost, is generally preoccupied with managing the vineyards and overseeing winemaking operations, though he pops into the wine shop now and then.
William Adams - Winemaker
Bill began his winemaking carreer in Ontario where he completed a three year wine making program at Niagra College. Working under veteran winemaker David Hojnoski at Palatine Hills Estate Winery, Bill learned the fun side of winemaking and and developed impeccable winemaking practices.
A visit to experience the Okanagan wine region in 2006 kept Bill here ever since. During his four years working with Pascal Madevon, classically french viticulurist and winemaker, at Osoyoos LaRose, he met Stoneboat’s Jay Martiniuk and our friendship with Bill began.
Bill joined Stoneboat afer a year as cellar master at Blue Mountain Vineyard & Cellars. His sensitive approach to winemaking, and his experience with Pinot varieties in particular, make him the perfect match for Stoneboat’s approach to honest, expressive wines.
Jay Martiniuk - Winemaker
While recuperating from a car accident that prevented him from returning to university in 2004, Jay began to consider a career in winemaking and viticulture.
He played an integral role in crafting the Stoneboat inaugural vintage in 2005 and has since worked as cellarmaster at Osoyoos Larose under winemaker Pascal Madevon. As Stoneboat’s winemaker until 2013, Jay founded the winery’s winemaking program and worked with Lanny to develop vineyard practices.
In 2011, the one-time Latin major graduated with a degree in food sciences from UBC, where he studied at the Wine Research Centre. With the 2012 vintage complete, Jay has moved back to Vancouver to continue work at the Wine Research Centre, where he aims to identify the native yeasts in Stoneboat’s Pinot Noir blocks.
Tim Martiniuk - Operator
Jay’s twin brother, Tim, has a degree in Political Studies and Media from Queen’s University. In 2008 he returned to the Okanagan to help run the family business, overseeing marketing and design and managing the wine shop. Having made the wines with Jay in the 2008 and 2009 vintages, Tim has an intimate understanding of Stoneboat’s winemaking programs, and he continues to assist William in the cellar.
In overseeing the winery’s operations, Tim’s role spans everything from cellar work to pouring at the tasting room, to mowing the lawn.
In his spare time, Tim keeps bees at the Home Vineyard and each year grows flowers for the wine shop along with heirloom vegetables in the Orchard Grove Vineyard’s garden plot.
Chris Martiniuk - Winemaker
From an early age, Chris spent his summers working on the vineyards doing everything from rock picking to leaf plucking- at which he's especially talented. After finishing his first year as a history major at Simon Fraser University, Chris returned home to become Stoneboat's Senior Foreman of Technical Operations (a.ka. tractor operator) and was responsible for the mowing and hedging of grape rows. He and Lanny also made Stoneboat's 2007 vintage together.
Realizing that his dreams are in the clouds, Chris has since become a pilot and now and flies cargo planes that often contain shipments of Stoneboat's wines. He is still flying low in the winery background though, and comes home on time off to reclaim his seat on the tractor (Lanny figures he's the best driver ever)
Levi Gogolinski - Marketing Manager