Here's Us!

Rigour & Whimsy is owned by husband and wife team Costa & Jody Gavaris. They currently focus on amber or orange wines as well as Gamay and Syrah. The name Rigour & Whimsy is an homage to their shared commitment to seeking balance in themselves, in their relationships, and in the natural world. Like yin and yang, Rigour and Whimsy are seemingly contrary attitudes that are actually complementary and interdependent. Both are necessary to find harmony.

Costa & Jody's approach to wine growing centres on regenerative farming, which means to increase biodiversity, enrich soils, improve watersheds, and enhance ecosystem resilience. They believe that responsible agriculture involves building topsoil and minimizing external inputs and disturbances to the rich microbiome of the soil.

Rigour & Whimsy is about to begin our 5th vintage. Winemaker Costa Gavaris has a diploma from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) but says it's hard to give a concise story about how one ends up making wine - as with so many things in life, it's usually a twisted path.

Costa essentially got into wine to impress Jody. On their first date, they enjoyed several British Columbian wines Costa was familiar with but he knew he would need to step up his game for the second date. That opened the rabbit hole down the path of wine for him and they are now married with their first human child (Stratis) and several thousand vine babies nestled in the rocky soil of Okanagan Falls, BC.