FAR RIGHT: JAMIE SMITH JULY/AUGUST 2017 BCBUSINESS 123
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trade, he predicts he will sell at least ‰ve
times as much wine as he would have in
the Oliver location.
Just don't call it an urban winery.
Some urban wineries don't actually
manufacture, but "we're a full-‹edged
winery," McWatters says. "We have full
crush facilities. But we happen to be
downtown."
And not for the ‰rst time. McWatters
started his career in 1968 at Casabello
Wines, three kilometres south of the
new winery. "We never thought of our-
selves as an urban winery," he says. "We
were actually at the outskirts of Penticton
then, at 2210 Main Street. We did plant
some grapes around it, but they were for
show more than anything else."
McWatters points out that a win-
ery unconnected to a vineyard is not
unusual. Among others, B.C.'s ‰rst win-
ery, Calona Vineyards, is in an industrial
area in Kelowna, and California's Wood-
bridge Winery, which produces at least
‰ve million cases a year, has no vineyard
attached to it. And not every winery in a
vineyard is a viable business. Of the 272
licensed B.C. grape wineries, in the ‰s-
cal year ending March 31, 2017, 95 sold
less than 5,000 cases and 65 sold none,
according to the British Columbia Wine
Institute, which McWatters Bond chairs.
Consumers are spoiled for choice, she
acknowledges, but for people in the wine
business, it's a hard way to make a living.
Winemakers need to boost volume or
have another job. "In our case, the model
is pretty straightforward," McWatters
says. "We're not going to see black ink for
a while, and we know that." It takes ‰ve
or six years of aggressive growth to break
even because startup costs are high
Purchases
115-acre
Black Sage
Vineyard in
Oliver
Appointed chair
of VQA Canada;
brings the term
Meritage to
Canada from
the U.S.
Buys Le Comte
Estate Winery,
renamed Haw-
thorne Mountain
Vineyards in 1995,
and then See Ya
Later Ranch (2003)
Sells Sumac Ridge
Estate Wine
Group (including
See Ya Later Ranch
and Sumac Ridge
Estate Winery)
to Vincor
International
Receives Order of
British Columbia
Founding chair
of British
Columbia
Hospitality
Foundation
Retires from
Constellation (formerly
Vincor) and opens
Vintage Consulting
Group Ltd.
GOOD FINISH
(From left) The wooden
beams at Time Winery are
original to the 1956 PenMar
theatre; Harry McWatters
with his daughter, Christa-
Lee McWatters Bond
