The winery is a 150 ton capacity winery built on the side of Mt Prevost. The concept was put together by Andy Johnston and the design was created by Vasco Pavlov. The design incorporates three rectangular buildings fitted together so as to create a gravity flow method for handling the wine. The vintner is of the opinion that the least amount of handling the Pinot Noir gets, the better the final product. To this end the Winery is constructed on four levels. The first being the grape reception pad. This flows to the press pad and ferment floor. After fermentation the wine flows by gravity to the blending floor and then to the barrel room. The wine ends up in barrel having never been pumped. This helps to retain the integrity and identity of the Cowichan Valley fruit.

The white grapes are received directly on the press pad where they are placed in a 2 ½ ton pneumatic bladder press. This only presses to a maximum of 1.5 bar. This is a very gentle press and produces about 600 litres/ton of juice. This gentle press ensures that no unwanted flavors are extracted from the grapes. The juice flows to the blending floor, where it is settled and chilled. The clear juice is racked directly to barrel or tank for fermentation.

The red grapes arrive on the reception floor where they are passed over a sorting table to ensure that only the best and ripest grapes end up in the fermentors. The grapes pass through a destemmer which does not have a crusher attachment. The destemmer only juices about 5% of the grapes. The whole grapes are then fermented in 2 ton open top fermentors. These can be positioned with the aid of a fork lift truck. After fermentation has finished the free run wine flows to the barrel room via the blending floor. It will age in French oak barriques for 12 to 18 months. The pumice is returned to the press from which the press wine flows directly to the barrel room for ageing.

The winery has the capacity to chill up to 70 tons of grapes and incorporates all the equipment of a state of the art facility.

Averill Creek is planning to bottle at least 12 to 15 months after vintage depending on the ageing requirements of the wine in barrel. Bottling is done by Artus Bottling, a mobile bottling line from Naramata. Wine will not be released until 18 to 24 months after the vintage to allow appropriate bottle development.

Averill Creek only uses screw tops to seal its wine. The wine maker believes this is the best way to preserve the natural quality of the wine over a long period of time.

The design of the winery includes a tasting room and a commercial kitchen. The winemakers dining room opens onto the patios which are available  to rent for events and weddings. In the summer months, during hours of operation, the patio which has a wonderful view of the Saanich Inlet, is open for picnics. Wine is available both by the glass and the bottle to sit and sip on the patio while you enjoy your picnic. Averill Creek welcomes tour groups and is happy to arrange tours of the winery and vineyards by appointment.