Robert Bell's

Wines of Canada

Since 1992

Sandra Oldfield

Sandra Oldfield

Sandra Oldfield grew up in Marin and Sonoma counties in California. She received her bachelor of arts in business administration with a focus in international business. After graduation, Sandra chose to work in the tasting room at Rodney Strong Vineyards while she decided what she wanted to pursue with her degree. After a year of working in the tasting room, a position came up in the cellar for a lab person. It was then that she realized that she preferred working on the production side of the wine business.

After this revelation, Sandra took two years of prep courses (chemistry, physics, etc.) at Santa Rosa before starting at University of California at Davis (UC Davis) in the summer of 1993. Her research focus was the ripening Cabernet Sauvignon. Seven different wineries allowed Sandra to use their vineyards for her research and she was given the use of the Mondavi facilities to make her wine. She also studied Canadian history

While attending UC Davis, Sandra met Kenn Oldfield. Kenn had recently purchased the Tinhorn Creek Vineyard and was at UC Davis learning more about vineyard care and practices. Kenn convinced Sandra to get involved and they struck an agreement. Serendipitously Kenn found both his winemaker and a wife. Sandra was excited about the opportunity to get involved in the still young wine industry in British Columbia and was very optimistic about the region's ability to produce great quality wines.

In 1995 Sandra moved to Oliver from Santa Rosa, California. I packed my ‘66 Mustang and drove across the border to a new life, full of excitement and hope – including the hope that my car wouldn't break down somewhere in Washington.

Since then she has taken the production from 1,000 cases to more than 35,000 cases all with 100% estate-only fruit. In addition, she led Tinhorn Creek to become the first carbon neutral winery in Canada as well as the first winery in BC to receive a certificate of recognition for its vigorous health and safety program

Sandra resumed her studies and was awarded her master's of Enology in 2002. In 2002, while watching the men's gold medal hockey game during the Salt Lake City Olympics, Sandra noticed that she was not cheering for the Americans, but for the Canadians to win. It was in that moment that Sandra realized that she had become Canadian and needed to make that official. She began preparation for a series of exams and, in October 2002, she officially became a Canadian citizen – a proud moment for the entire winery team

Sandra was president and CEO of Tinhorn Creek one of Canada's most distinguished wineries . Located in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley on the Golden Mile. The winery has 150 acres of prime land on two very distinct benches. The 100 acre Diamondback vineyard on the Black Sage Bench and the 50 Acre Tinhorn Creek vineyard on the Golden Mile

Sandra firmly believes that the wine is made in the vineyard and the winemaker just babysits the wine until it goes into the bottle. For this reason, she strongly supports a winery being an estate winery because of the full control they have over vineyards.

She is a wife, mother ( a daughter) and owner of several pets, seven cats and 2 dog.. She has a vintage purse collection cars are '66 Mustang from California and '57 DeSoto

Sanadra is the host and founder of #BCWINECHAT on tweeter

In 2016 CEO Sandra Oldfield has been named as a Top 100 award winner in the Sun Life Financial Trailblazers & Trendsetters category of the Women’s Executive Network’s (WXN) 2016 Canada’s Most Powerful Women.

In 2018 she was awarded The Ben Hume Leadership Award from theManufacturing Safety Alliance of BC.

In 2018 A new Minister’s Tourism Engagement Council (MTEC), with a diverse membership to help guide government's tourism policy, strategy and program implementation, has been announced by Lisa Beare, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture. Sanadra is on this Council

Aug 2018 Elysian Projects president Sandra Oldfield elected to the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame. She is named in the Friend of the Industry Category for providing exceptional support to the restaurant industry.

Sandra and Kenn Oldfield established Elysian Projects to give a hand up to BC wineries and tourism businesses. They work in a wide range of areas including organizational effectiveness, business analysis and planning, recruitment, mentoring and and innovative sales and marketing ideas. At the heart of every project they accept is the belief that people come first and from there success will follow

In 2020 Sandra became the new Agriculture Liaison Officer Assistant for the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen--one of 8 people representing grapes/wineries, cattle, tree fruits and horses.

In 2022 BC Hospitality Foundation elected Sanadra as board chair.