Say Yes to Adventure & Let the Grapes Make the Wine

The story of A Sunday in August begins not in a vineyard but in a shared love of food and wine between two people who met and fell in love over long meals and longer conversations. Mike Shindler is from Vancouver; Sam Milbrath is from Victoria. Their paths crossed in a way that would eventually lead them to create one of Canada's most distinctive natural wine brands. In the early days, Mike didn't even own a car — he was renting a car to go to the Okanagan for harvest and riding his bike from restaurant to restaurant and wine store to wine store in Vancouver to sell their first wines. "I didn't even have a car," Mike recalls. "I was renting a car to go to the Okanagan and I was riding my bike from restaurant to restaurant or wine stores." It was a humble beginning, but the wines — made with minimal intervention from organic grapes — began to resonate with a growing community of natural wine lovers.

The first wines were produced in 2016 under another winery's license — a common practice for new producers — and the brand was officially launched in 2017. The name "A Sunday in August" came from Mike's personal Instagram account. "We liked the idea that it was really fun and inviting, and that it spoke to the ethos of making wine that's approachable and not too stuffy; suggesting something bright and fresh that you can drink year round — really crushable," Sam explains with a laugh. There's also a strong family connection: Sam's sisters are both visual artists, and their work features prominently on several of the brand's distinctive labels — making each bottle as much a piece of art as a vessel for wine. The couple's guiding principles have been consistent from the start: support local and organic grape growers in BC, make small-batch and experimental naturally fermented wines, and create something that makes people feel good without spoiling the planet.

The early vintages were made on the Naramata Bench and in Kelowna's Mission District, with Mike going back and forth between Vancouver and the Okanagan. But it was always the pair's intention to establish A Sunday in August on the coast. "I'm from Victoria. We've always liked the Gulf Islands and got married on Salt Spring," Sam explains. In 2021, they found their happy place — a 20-acre property on Salt Spring Island with a little house, water, sunlight, and the kind of natural beauty that spoke to them immediately. They bought the farm, planted 3+ acres of organic grapevines and orchards (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Gamay), and built a winery facility where they have made their wine since the 2023 vintage. Much of the 20 acres has been retained as natural forest and meadow ecosystems — a deliberate choice to blend agriculture with ecology rather than replace it. This is not a winery built by investors or marketing teams; it is a labour of love built by two people who believe that wine should be honest, creative, unique, and fun.

The winemaking at A Sunday in August is defined by a single principle: let the grapes make the wine. Mike Shindler is a steward of the natural, wild fermentation process — not a manipulator of it. All fermentation is spontaneous and wild, counting entirely on the indigenous yeasts and microorganisms that exist naturally on the grapes and in the cellar. There are no cultured yeasts, no enzymes, no adjustments, no fining agents, and no additives beyond trace sulphur at a maximum of 30 ppm. The wines are not merely low-intervention; they are zero-intervention — a radical act of trust in the microbiological intelligence of the vineyard ecosystem. For Mike, this is not a stylistic choice but a logical extension of the farming philosophy: if the grapes have been grown with such care for soil health and biodiversity, then the winemaker's role is not to manipulate them but to get out of the way and let the natural biome do its work.

The orange wines are perhaps the most distinctive expression of Mike's approach. Rather than the heavy, amphora-fermented orange wines of ancient Georgia, Mike makes a lighter, more accessible orange style fermented and aged in stainless steel. Using a shorter period of maceration, the process transforms white varieties into more nuanced wines without sacrificing freshness. The Orange Pinot Gris — perennially sold out — undergoes semi-carbonic maceration in stainless steel for three days before being pressed. "Pinot Gris can be a little bit boring," Mike explains, "but if you macerate it to give it a little bit more texture and some really nice colour, it can still have that white wine freshness — but with a little more fruitiness that makes it a more interesting wine." The result is a wine that captures the white wine freshness with added texture and fruitiness — an approachable, crushable orange that has become a gateway for many into the world of skin-contact wine.

The Island Vibes is another radical expression — a red and white co-ferment made with organic Saanich Peninsula grapes: Foch and Ortega macerated on the skins for 10 days before being pressed into stainless steel. The blend also includes Pinot Noir and Leon Millot, creating a wine of red cherries, fresh-picked raspberries, and strawberries — a fun, light, and bright summer party in a bottle. The Field Blend draws from multiple sites and varieties — Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, and others — creating a wine that is greater than the sum of its parts. And the Riesling is a pure, direct expression of mineral-driven Okanagan fruit, wild-fermented and bottled with its natural vitality intact. What unites every wine is Mike's belief that wine should be crushable — not in the sense of being simple or trivial, but in the sense of being so delicious, so alive, and so honest that you can't help but drink the whole bottle. This is winemaking as joy — not creation, but liberation.

A Sunday in August is not merely a winery; it is a proof that a bike-riding winemaker with no car and a photographer with a dream can build one of Canada's most distinctive natural wine brands, that an Instagram name can become a philosophy, and that the best Canadian wine is sometimes the one that makes you laugh as much as it makes you think. In an era when the Canadian wine industry was often defined by either industrial scale or intimidating seriousness, Mike Shindler and Sam Milbrath demonstrated that the truest Canadian wine is made not by choosing between quality and fun but by holding both in balance — respecting the grape while embracing creativity, and never forgetting that wine should make people feel good. The same Pinot Gris that might have been dismissed as boring has become a perennially sold-out orange wine that has introduced countless drinkers to skin-contact fermentation. The same Foch and Ortega that might have been overlooked as unfashionable varieties have become the heart of a co-ferment that captures the joy of a summer party in a bottle. And the same couple who once sold wine by bike between Vancouver restaurants now distributes across five Canadian provinces from a winery on Salt Spring Island.

The legacy of A Sunday in August is the legacy of the crushable revolution — a movement that does not reject quality but redefines it through the lens of approachability, honesty, and joy. Mike's belief that "we let the grapes make the wine" is not a slogan of laziness but a creed of trust — a recognition that the vineyard, when farmed organically and harvested with care, knows better than any winemaker what it needs to become truly alive. The brand's distinctive labels — created by Sam's sisters, both visual artists — are not merely packaging but manifestos of individuality in an industry that too often prizes conformity. The decision to sell only online, with no physical retail location or tasting room, is not a limitation but a deliberate choice that allows the team to focus on what matters most: making wine. "First and foremost we're winemakers," Mike and Sam say, "before we enter more into tourism and hospitality."

The future of the project is tied to the future of the Canadian natural wine movement — to the growing recognition that the most interesting wines come not from technology but from terroir, creativity, and the courage to be different. As the Orange Pinot Gris continues to sell out vintage after vintage, as the Island Vibes co-ferment expands its reach, as the Salt Spring Island estate vineyard matures and begins to produce wines of genuine coastal character, and as the brand's commitment to organic, regenerative, and zero-intervention winemaking inspires a new generation of Canadian producers, A Sunday in August remains what Mike and Sam have always intended it to be: a living, breathing expression of the belief that wine should be honest, creative, unique, and fun — and that the planet should never be spoiled in the process. The story of this winery is the story of two people who looked at a run-down property on Salt Spring Island and saw not limitation but potential — and who proved that the best Canadian wine is sometimes the one that comes from listening to the grape, trusting the wild yeast, and never forgetting that wine should be crushable. This is not merely a winery; it is a way of life — and A Sunday in August invites every drinker to say yes to adventure, one glass at a time.