In the fall of 2002 we purchased a beautiful 5 acre farm on the Naramata Bench in the Okanagan Valley and we named it “Joie”. Joie has been a constantly evolving concept that began as a guesthouse and critically acclaimed cooking school, located outdoors, formerly in our orchard.
In 2007 the orchard was planted over to grape vines and a new winery building was built on the property. The story and of the cooking school and guesthouse have been captured in Heidi's
award winning book Menus from an Orchard Table (Whitecap, 2007). With the addition of our
own estate grown fruit in 2009, we have changed our name to JoieFarm to reflect our deeper connection to the place we call home.

Heidi is a professionally trained chef and sommelier, winemaker, farmer and author. After graduating at the top of her class with a B.A. in Philosophy and Western Literature from the University of Western Ontario, she embarked on a culinary career attending the esteemed Stratford Chef's School. Her restaurant career was spent at some of Canada's best restaurants including Montreal's Tôqué and Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario.

In 2000, Heidi moved out of the kitchen and trained with the Canadian Sommelier Guild in Vancouver. She then worked in Vancouver's wine trade with a small, niche wine importer, The Seacove Group. Heidi's winemaking skills have been self-taught, and guided by mentors including Paul Gardner at Pentâge Winery, the sage advice of Oregon's Jean-Paul Cameron and countless hours of research, reading, travel and endless (and most importantly) wine drinking.

Heidi is interested in the exploration of a new viticultural area while simultaneously participating in the Okanagan’s development of its own identity within the spectrum of BC’s regional cuisines. Her wish is that these cuisines will ultimately be bound together by the world-class wines of the Okanagan Valley as both traditions mature and influence one another.

Heidi heads up the day to day winemaking and production side of things at JoieFarm, as well as running the vineyard.

Michael is a professionally trained sommelier, logistics expert and natural-born salesman. Michael, originally from Campbell River, moved to Vancouver in the mid-eighties and attended Simon Fraser University from which he graduated with a BA in History. Michael was the top graduate for Western Canada from the 1999 Canadian Sommelier Guild program. Michael spent 13 years working in the front of house at a number of Vancouver's best restaurants, including positions as sommelier at both C Restaurant and Cin Cin.

After meeting and marrying Heidi, Michael left the restaurant business in 2001 and spent three years as a Senior Sales Consultant with the premium Western Canadian importer Winspeer International Group working with a number of the world’s most celebrated wineries.

Michael oversees the sales and marketing of JoieFarm as well as the complex logistics of running a large “small” winery.



Robert Thielicke is a ten year veteran of the BC wine industry. Robert trained at Okanagan University College in geology, and furthered his studies in viticulture and enology under instructors Bill Eggert (Fairview Cellars owner/winemaker) and Cory Korbie. Robert comes to JoieFarm from Mount Boucherie Winery where he spent five years as the assistant to Graham Pierce (currently head winemaker at Black Hills) and one year as the head winemaker.

Robert is committed to sustainability and low impact winemaking. Robert is pleased to have joined JoieFarm in May 2009 and is looking forward to making small volume, high-quality wines which are made with intent and interest as a team.