00:01:16.240We started off here in Moncton as a local strawberry farm.
00:01:19.900So strawberry farmers had a U-pick a couple of kilometers up the road.
00:01:23.100Okay. And the original question we asked ourselves as a family is like, well, what can we do with the fruit we grow so that we can make a product to sell all year long? Right. Because the thing in farming, if it's too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, like mother nature is really good at stealing your paycheck. Yeah. Yeah. And then if the weather is perfect, well, then there's, you know, road construction or trade wars or other things that can really cripple a farm. Yeah. And, and, you know, as farmers, we were working all year long to feed other families.
00:01:49.580but then a few years we didn't actually keep enough or make enough to then feed our own family
00:01:54.060and so that's what led to the original question it's like well what can we do with the fruit we
00:01:58.340grow to make and product they're making cellar product all year long yeah and and then one day
00:02:02.920we just joked that the answer for a maritimer is always alcohol okay and then just it hit us we're
00:02:08.780like let's make strawberry wine and i believe it or not that was like the mid-90s was still
00:02:14.080illegal to make wine in new brenswick so we're a very young industry here you know compared to
00:02:19.080Ontario we're compared to some other parts of Canada definitely compared to other parts of the
00:02:22.920world right okay so so you said okay let's let's pivot right 100% so yeah so now the tough part is
00:02:30.860you know you're a strawberry you pick company and now it's like a how to so now how do you pivot and
00:02:36.020and how do you figure out how to now you added on not just the we're going to show you in a minute
00:02:41.640we're going to before we leave uh we're going to and we'll probably leave Zach and spend another
00:02:46.980hour here just filming everything else because it's pretty wild to what what he built so then
00:02:52.200how do you get into designing this and then your restaurant piece uh you have a wine tasting you
00:02:56.920have a you know i see an event tent uh how do you how do you get there so it so 21 years of
00:03:03.960blood sweat and tears and hard work and and definitely the vision that's what's one thing
00:03:08.540that uh my family and i are really good at is just being able to see you know kind of the 20
00:03:13.360years out and then that gradual hard work to to get there right uh and this so speaking of the
00:03:18.720hard work yeah here's the pictures uh so so in terms of so yeah we had had here's some pictures
00:03:23.780of the original strawberry farm and raspberries uh and then that when we so we back in the day
00:03:29.860we had us and other local farmers we actually had to petition and be liquor petition the provincial
00:03:34.460government to change the rules change the laws let us let us have a wine industry here in new
00:03:38.620brenswick wow and so slowly and surely um yeah we we were getting closer to starting the winery
00:03:45.360and then what then this house came up for sale and so we we had this conversation of like you
00:03:51.300know what if we're going to start a winery let's really start a winery yeah so so this is actually
00:03:55.780what we bought back in 2003 uh it was known as the old haunted house on the hill so people from
00:04:01.380lungton knew this house it was a big landmark in the community because it was actually abandoned
00:04:06.180for 20 years before we bought it wow it's again known as the haunted house on the hill so even
00:04:10.820here the barn that we're standing in you guys would have been buried right now in newspapers
00:04:15.100and bottles and clothes and furniture because the the owner before us was a collector
00:04:19.320collector's the polite word for a hoarder yeah and uh yeah it was a really interesting property
00:04:25.420people came through and partied in it ransacked in it tried to burn it down a few times but the
00:04:29.880house always survived and and the first thing my parents saw when they walked in this house
00:04:34.480so you have to imagine like just hoarder dump trucks full of all this stuff especially
00:04:39.440newspapers and the first thing my parents saw was when they walked into the kitchen
00:04:43.540was then a newspaper article about my mom from Halifax when she was a teenager when she won
00:04:48.940this competition called the young farmer's daughter of the year oh and that article was
00:04:53.020just front row center there in the kitchen and and like I've told that story you know tens of
00:04:58.400thousands of times now over the last 20 years and it doesn't matter how often I tell it I still get
00:05:03.400this this fun little emotional wave yeah because we know we're supposed to be here doing what we're
00:05:07.920doing right and it's very rare to have like that level of connection to your craft or you know what
00:05:13.160you do and why you do it yeah 100 we know we're supposed to be here telling the stories making
00:05:17.880wine and showing tens of thousands of people uh a year around here yeah make them happy oh nice
00:05:24.280nice and so you get the you get the prop this property was it was it wasn't in your family
00:05:30.300you bought it right and then and of course like when you look at the vistas which we're going to
00:05:35.420show the folks uh after but when you look at the vistas you understand why you see the potential
00:05:40.540in it right and then and then comes the design of the building so then the design of the building
00:05:45.300which we're going to go in in a minute you start figuring out how do i take advantage of the vistas
00:05:49.980and the winery i assume right yeah yeah 100 and so i used to come back to you know so on the
00:05:56.120development side to begin with like when we bought this old house like yes there were lots of
00:06:01.280developers looking at the property the vistas beautiful 10 acre site in moncton a very rare
00:06:06.200you know chunk of real estate and uh and and for us like when we presented the offer to to the
00:06:12.300family who owned it we just said like what were our plans and what we wanted to do with the property
00:06:16.400and and there was about 150 people trying to actually buy this property at the same time as
00:06:21.560us uh but we were the only perp or the only family the only people that wanted to actually
00:06:26.800renovate and restore the house okay and and that was uh that was really how we even ended up with
00:06:33.140this property because we were pretty low on the totem pole as far as like other developers and
00:06:36.840things it was just it you know for us it was like sell a bottle of wine buy another two by four or
00:06:42.180sell a bottle of wine and buy a case of nails and and so it was like it really took us uh over five
00:06:47.840years to get it from that original house to even something that looked remotely close to a winery
00:06:53.260that one would normally visit in you know the okanagan and niagara and so those original
00:06:58.320five years were some pretty hard years of uh yeah like working the strawberry farm all day
00:07:03.900work at the winery all night and then uh and then in the off seasons do the whole and the actual
00:07:08.640physical renovations and the restoration of this house uh so yeah original winery started in the
00:07:13.680cellar and the goal was 5 000 bottles of wine a year that was it and then now this year uh we're
00:07:20.700we're about 200 000 oh wow it's a big uh big jump after congratulations yeah that's so cool that's
00:07:26.380so cool and and so when you're doing this so the interesting the interesting part to me is when
00:07:32.340you're coming did you create a master plan out of the site at that time so did you sit down
00:07:36.100absolutely not no so you just started off literally started off with the house
00:07:39.940and then started working working the house out and then from there yeah so so the well the original
00:07:48.500vision was 5 000 bottles of wine a year seasonal tourism business yeah uh and we actually the
00:07:54.240original plan for the second floor we wanted to have a cluster of little artisans like we wanted
00:07:59.480to actually be you know build that so that we could have been we could provide some support to
00:08:04.100other families in the region to sell you know their wares or their goods gotcha uh and then
00:08:09.300as a developer you probably know uh fund restrictions that the city or the governments
00:08:13.560or other things put on you and for us uh it was impossible to renovate the historic site keep the
00:08:19.280integrity of of a heritage building uh but when we were when we would have been considered a
00:08:25.320shopping mall so then we would have had to have gut gutted the the actual historic integrity of
00:08:30.280the property so then that forced us to shift midway through the project into you know a different
00:08:35.700vision and so the for us it converted into a bed and breakfast because the bed and breakfast was
00:08:41.460the only way that we could actually operate a business live here and then be able to maintain
00:08:47.000the historic value of of the property oh i see okay oh cool well that's a neat story okay now
00:08:53.100wine help me out here because now i'm trying i'm making the shift and i you know i'm just asking
00:08:57.960that I don't know, right? So I'm sure, so real expertise, right? So you have the, you know,
00:09:04.680been farming, you have the strawberries, you shift over to wine. So I see, you know, you've got
00:09:09.480background, you understand the soils. So how do you get the knowledge to do that? So where does
00:09:13.680that come from? So we worked with a fruit wine consultant out of Niagara, one of the pioneers
00:09:20.380or advocates for fruit wine in Ontario and the rest of Canada. So got some good, good help in
00:09:25.480for the first couple of years on the consulting side of things for our fruit winemaking.
00:09:30.420And at that time, we had actually promised ourselves we'll never grow grapes here.
00:09:36.000And so for us, when I say 5,000 bottles, it was strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, rhubarb,
00:09:40.040really value adding all of the traditional fruits and flavors of this region.
00:09:44.620Because in an 1867 house, this is what people would have been drinking in the 1860s here
00:09:49.960because they tried to bring grapes over from Europe.
00:09:52.080They all died and they still needed to drink something.
00:09:54.660yeah so they did they fermented apples and choke cherries and cranberries and
00:09:58.000everybody's heard of this crazy thing called dandelion wine yeah well that's
00:10:01.460what course we continued the traditions of my dad's italian
00:10:04.820fantastic so i know yeah perfect yeah and and so yeah so we continue those
00:10:09.080traditions of the region but now we had you know modern science
00:10:12.040modern technology equipment to make modern balanced wines
00:10:14.980okay it's still very much kind of really in or in homage to the to the history
00:10:19.840of their region and so and at that time it promised
00:10:23.000or else we'll never grow grapes because it was a very tricky thing to think about 20 some years
00:10:27.220ago here um it wasn't necessarily anybody's fault but the grapes originally either didn't survive
00:10:33.420the winters or those varieties didn't make good wine or then the varieties didn't make enough wine
00:10:38.800per acre that you could pay the bills right so i mean you said italian descent so did you have any
00:10:43.740vineyards in the family back in italy uh no no but you know we're making our own wine downtown
00:10:50.100when we got there uh was it was an annual event for us you know we go buy the grapes crush the
00:10:55.860grapes and we'd all get together you know bottling everything we that's you know we that was just
00:11:00.240my childhood so with red wine right love it so and uh so yeah so we we didn't necessarily i did
00:11:06.260i wasn't raised uh with that unfortunately i had to had to go figure out how to develop that
00:11:10.880uh and so we developed it originally like some of those carboys in the basement of all of our
00:11:15.900different fruits yeah and then i started studying university uh because your parent farming families
00:11:21.940always tell your kids go get a good government job go get a good paid job something like something
00:11:26.760don't become a farmer right that is you know nine times out of ten what what parents tell you
00:11:31.480and a lot of times that's the way you start off and then eventually you do get kind of pulled back
00:11:36.540into into the life yeah and so i i realized pretty quickly in university i didn't want to be an
00:11:42.580engineer i didn't want to sit behind a desk and a computer for my whole life so went traveling and
00:11:47.100was trying to explore really like what brings me joy what do i want to do for the rest of my life
00:11:51.320and and started hitchhiking around europe hitchhiked with a german grape grower during
00:11:56.220their harvest oh nice they invited me to pick grapes with them okay and and i took them up on
00:12:00.860the offer yeah and and uh you know it was free place to stay free for free food i was assuming
00:12:06.700they were gonna give me some free wine and that whole deal too so i had a great time and i forget
00:12:11.620exactly if it was three minutes or 30 minutes or three hours but it definitely was the first
00:12:15.780morning of picking grapes promised myself that's what i wanted to do for the rest of my life oh
00:12:20.060nice and so fell in love with with viticulture and the history and because these were you know
00:12:24.600hundred year old vineyards in a medieval community in southern germany and just i absolutely fell in
00:12:30.040love and so came home and then had to have a fun conversation with my parents yeah so at that
00:12:34.900point it was like hey i know we said we'll never grow grapes but like let's just try some yeah and
00:12:41.460so tried tried to grow some and so like yeah i'll like a walk you through the original vineyard
00:12:45.820over there right after but it was a tiny little parcel to just ask the question or answer the
00:12:50.980question is like can can we get grapes to survive here uh can they make good wine and then can they
00:12:56.600make enough wine per acre that we can pay the bills and keep going right and then more and more
00:13:01.180the varieties that we we championed uh we planted up the rest of this site in those varieties and
00:13:06.820then other local farmers started to pick them up and and it was just kind of one of those right
00:13:10.780place right time things because the varieties that we planted were some of the first in canada
00:13:14.940to to plant okay and they're they're brand new varieties out of like wisconsin or minnesota
00:13:19.700so these are things that 20 30 years ago didn't even exist right and the and the weather so the
00:13:24.960weather match is comparable yeah that's how it worked right i assume yeah and so that's the
00:13:30.940thing is our our winters here like you guys in august are visiting us at our perfect time
00:13:35.920come back in january or february a little harsher of a climate oh i've been here perfect yeah so
00:13:42.680like you know minus 20 minus 30 every about every 10 years we'll have a minus 30 yeah and and i have
00:13:48.280zero intention of burying the vines like they do in quebec or prince edward county putting geo
00:13:53.780textiles over them i have a pretty pretty um well for my my view of sustainability i don't want to
00:14:03.200compromise and so for me it's just a vine has got to naturally survive and thrive without a lot of
00:14:08.600intervention right and so for us it's just really making sure those varieties that they'll survive
00:14:13.120that that minus 30 and and so yeah now it's then to figure out how to make the best wine possible
00:14:19.340out of those new varieties oh cool so you so you you you traveled quite a bit so you learned you
00:14:25.600learned the craft kind of the winemaking craft in germany from them and saw it happening and then
00:14:31.560all over the world just to find different strands different uh i don't know genetic
00:14:37.600compositions of grapes is that so it was more so the methodologies the winemaking know-how
00:14:43.560um learn that around the world a lot of them the vision of like how to how to make wine how to sell
00:14:48.980wine the branding the marketing around it the tasting room experiences like i i've really
00:14:54.180forced myself into that that environment of of making sure i've visited over 600 wineries in
00:15:00.20030 some countries because when you don't when you're not from a region that has that like just
00:15:05.360ingrained in the region or ingrained in your dna you've got to yeah make sure you're taking all the
00:15:10.720like the best practices from around the world yeah and and it's not necessarily trying to recreate
00:15:14.840the wheel it's the it's then taking kind of like the what's worked around the around the world
00:15:20.240then opening that up to you know what are our limitations or restrictions or our benefits from
00:15:25.960here and then just tying that all together and then as fast as we can yeah and all well you know
00:15:32.140your family kind of being the part of the trendsetters to actually get the government to get
00:15:37.000their head around it oh absolutely right and now so what markets are you selling in now so you take
00:15:42.640me through like all of canada right now uh it is it's a very tough market to crack or not yeah
00:15:50.480yeah not to crack around around canada uh we are very fortunate uh you know as young as we are and
00:15:56.200as new as we are in wine but we do sell it in multiple provinces already so uh yeah a little
00:16:01.320little bit in lcbo a little bit in prince edward or like pei a little bit in nova scotia yeah and
00:16:06.620then now really over the next kind of five years getting a little more solid foothold in in every
00:16:12.020province oh good good for you good for you and you're in great bottle count so now the development
00:16:17.080of the property so as you're doing it you mentioned that's the the vineyard the first
00:16:20.840vineyard you know the planting was there and then you wrap around and then i guess the building is
00:16:26.240developing at the same time right as you're growing as you're getting the number of bottles
00:16:30.860up and you're growing it you're you know piece by piece you're adding on layers right and you're
00:16:34.920saying you're building it yourself or you're you're you're really where we're our own construction
00:16:39.660crew really yeah oh wow it was yeah so family effort uh to to get the actual original house
00:16:47.000renovated and restored uh to to what you guys see today yeah uh and then it was really evaluating
00:16:53.060okay well so where's the business today where are we trying to get in five or ten years
00:16:57.300and at that time that's where i i'd kind of get we had an opportunity in new brunswick to sell
00:17:03.180through the finally start selling through envy liquor finally start selling through the grocery
00:17:07.080stores and now having an access to market with a you know a pathway that allowed us to be bigger
00:17:14.400than just a tour like a seasonal summer tourism business is what convinced me to be able to come
00:17:19.080back and really and buy into the company and grow it with mom and dad yeah and and so at that point
00:17:24.240it was okay well what's our goal where are we going to try to be in 10 years and what can we
00:17:29.060afford to build and uh definitely bit off a lot a lot and started building then the the building
00:17:34.940that you guys see today right and you and you might given us a i know 100 time but if you i'd
00:17:41.340love to actually have you walk through and just talk a little about you know what you're thinking
00:17:45.820is as you're doing it and sort of you know giving us kind of a phasing that'd be great i think
00:17:50.560that'd be very interesting fantastic yeah so this is where one two you know behind the scenes where
00:18:01.020magic happens yeah uh wow so this is a little bigger than the bathtub in toronto uh for for
00:18:08.860the uh back in the day yeah well you're running 13 big uh vats right really and then plus the
00:18:16.220smaller ones that's amazing yeah and and so yeah here in the meantime uh that's a big yeah we like
00:18:22.780we put through almost 200 tons of local grapes last year yeah and and so that was uh when i say
00:18:28.540bursting at the seams like it's a it's a fun logistics to make that much wine in this room
00:18:33.580yeah uh and and then in a combination of the so those 200 tons we did it in a hundred individual
00:18:42.220batches oh so which is crazy yeah and and the reason for that is because we're we're the ones
00:18:49.100really writing the book on you know not just this region and the terroir and like what does a great
00:18:54.540tastes like it that comes from New Brunswick it's like well what what does Marquette taste like what
00:18:59.020does Osceola taste like like there's a you know a brand new grape that we love that's called Saint
00:19:03.020Pepin like what is Saint Pepin supposed to taste like yeah like where we don't have the benefit of
00:19:07.500hundreds of years of experience with those varieties like like Europe or like the growers
00:19:13.020of traditional the traditional grapes have we're starting from scratch yeah and and so the way I
00:19:20.220like to look at that is a couple years ago I figured out I have the same birthday as Riesling
00:19:24.540March 13th, International Riesling Day, also happens to be my birthday, and just listen to a
00:19:30.360podcast. And so that podcast that day, there was a Canadian sommelier who interviewed four German
00:19:36.180families, but he introduced them that those four families had a combined 2,000 years of experience
00:19:42.360growing Riesling. And that sentence changed my life. Because if it's four families that have
00:19:47.6802,000 years of experience, you start kind of doing the back of the napkin math, well there's
00:19:52.140tens of thousands of families growing hundreds of thousands of acres making hundreds of millions
00:19:56.460of bottles a year they've been doing it for 800 years yeah there's some collective wisdom around
00:20:02.380what to do and how to grow and what like what riesling tastes like yeah whereas with us like
00:20:06.860we're one of the first people to to plant the varieties that we plant so we're literally a
00:20:11.500handful of producers on a handful of acres making a handful of bottles for a handful of years yeah
00:20:17.420and so for us we have to then try to catch up and so we're recreating you know generational
00:20:23.180knowledge but with but very quickly yeah well that's terrific you're pioneers actually pioneers
00:20:29.420in the province and pioneers in canada which is so exciting are you finding so it's interesting
00:20:34.220uh i have a we have a business back in toronto and it's uh it's a charitable gaming and when i
00:20:40.060started it a lot of people didn't believe in it they were like yeah i was going to fail and so
00:20:44.380So what they did is they used to come around and sit, and we have two restaurants inside.
00:20:48.720And they used to sit, and they used to watch, and they think, oh, this thing won't work.