I’m just back from a wonderful trip to the heart of British Columbia’s wine region, the Okanagan Valley.
The journey actually started on January 12th when an email popped into my inbox. Why do all of the biggest changes in my life start with an unexpected email? No matter ;)
It was from Dan Paszkowski, President and Chief Executive Officer of Wine Growers Canada, an organization representing 800 wineries across the country. I can now share his confidential note with you. It read:
I am delighted to inform you that you have been selected as the 2024 recipient of the WGC Wine Industry Champion Award.
This award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, commitment and passion for the advancement of the Canadian wine industry through media, research, policy and regulation, education, or other means, significantly contributing to the overall strength and long-term viability of the industry.
You were nominated by a member of the Canadian wine industry and enthusiastically co-selected by a national industry committee. The committee recognizes and appreciates your indefatigable support for the Canadian wine industry.
The award will be presented on March 12 at the Penticton Trade & Convention Centre as part of the joint Wine Growers Canada-Wine Growers BC Awards Ceremony. The event will be attended by Canadian wineries from across the country and is sure to be a very memorable event.
As background, this is the highest wine award a Canadian can win who does not work for a winery.
Previous winners include Minister of Agriculture & Agri-Food, Marie-Claude Bibeau and Dr. Debbie Inglis, Director of Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture degree program.
Credit: Wine Growers Canada, Wine Growers British Columbia
Photo by Royce Sihlis
Greg Berti, Vice President, Andrew Peller, Dan Paszkowski, WGC
Jim, Midge and Chris Wyse, Burrowing Owl Winery won the
Industry Award of Distinction – so well deserved!
A week of happy dancing in my bedroom followed that email. Cue the song “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson. I found it hard to settle down and get back to work, especially since I couldn’t tell anyone.
Then the organization asked me to deliver an acceptance speech of five minutes to the industry audience.
Gulp.
I didn’t know what to say except to avoid the saccharine sweet speeches that we hear at this time of the year.
So I tried to turn it around to focus on the industry, which has been going through a rough year, especially in the west. Following wildfires, BC has just gone through a freak frost that’s killed most of the buds on the vines. They’re expecting a 97% crop loss this year. There’s no putting rosé-coloured glasses on that news.
Here’s what I said if you don’t want to watch the video above ;)
Thank you to Wine Growers Canada, Wine Growers British Columbia and to all of you here tonight for this recognition. I feel so fortunate to be part of an industry that creates a product that not only contributes so much to the economy, but also to our souls with its sensory pleasure, its family roots and its wild variety.
My only regret is that I didn’t get involved with wine sooner. When I graduated from business school, I was so pragmatic. Following your passion was, well, for arts majors.
So I joined Procter & Gamble on the Crisco brand where I spent many soulless days watching focus groups of women talking about their flaky pie crusts. No matter how hard I tried, I could not pour my soul into baking fat.
Photo Credit: Annika and Tanja from Wine Gone West
Wonderful to meet these two dynamos!
I decided that high tech marketing would be more interesting and joined a supercomputer company based in Mountainview California, which eventually got purchased and became the headquarters of Google.
It was exciting, but I still didn’t feel grounded in a culture that urged us to move fast and break things. The best thing that came from visiting California so often was developing a taste for Napa Valley wine. Everyone has to start somewhere, right?
When I finally joined the wine industry, I felt as though I’d dropped out a Brave New World and stumbled on to the set of Downton Abbey.
Instead of move fast and break things, it was whoa, slow down and heal things, the healing that can come through a quiet conversation over a great glass of wine, the warmth of the sun sliding over your shoulders as you walk through the vineyard and the pleasure of breathing in the sweet scent of grapes hanging heavy in the air.
Photo Credit: Kayla Bordignon from Uncork BC
Kayla won the WCBC Master Marketer Award – Cheers to that!
Wine drew me outside again. It got me out of my head and away from the computer I was chained to in my tech job. Some employees there slept under their desks to work longer.
Guilty.
We used to say that we were “mole people.” We shrank from sunlight.
Well, the Canadian wine industry, particularly here in the west, has been through many dark nights of the soul. To a certain extent, I’ve shared a taste of what it’s like to have your personal and professional lives go up in flames, as I wrote in my latest book with the cheery title Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much.
While writing the book, I came across the wonderful winemaking term “dry extract” that refers to the essence of the wine’s flavour components when all the moisture has evaporated. I believe that dry extract is in us, too, as people, especially in this industry. It’s what’s left after life has burned us down to our essence. And if we can hold on to it, we can rise again.
That is what I see for Canadian wine. No other industry has the potential for renewal, growth and revitalization. No other industry celebrates what is cyclical, and seasonal and completely out of our control.
Wine reaches a place that baking fat, computer chips and no other consumer product can touch.
Although I’ve been fortunate to win a few writing awards in the US and Australia, nothing compares to being embraced by your own people for something more than just words on the page – for a calling that embraces your mind, body and soul.
I raise my glass to all of you here tonight who create something out of sun and soil that we can all pour our souls into. Cheers!
Natalie MacLean feels like the quality of Canadian wine is too high for gimmicky labels to be slapped onto it. And most of the wine is produced by entrepreneurs with fascinating backstories.
“We vote with our dollars when we buy wine so why not support those stories, those labels, rather than the red lips, high heels and a short dress.”
– Dan Walton, Columnist, Penticton Herald News
Wine Witch Wins Big
Natalie MacLean approached the writing of the book as therapeutic and a public service and, let’s admit it, entertainment, because a great story of ruin and redemption is a rip-roaring read.
“In the end, it’s not what happened to you, but what you learned from it. Ultimately, it’s a story of recovery and I hope my story might make someone else who may be going through difficulty not feel alone.”
While the book definitely has a message, it’s written with humour and has a happy ending.
– Steve MacNaull, Syndicated Wine Columnist, Victoria Now, Penticton Now, Vernon Now, Kelowna Now, Kamloops Now, Vernon Now and Prince George Now
Darcy Matteson, Editor, The Daily Hive
CBC On The Coast, Vancouver, Interview
CBC Radio West, Okanagan and Outside Vancouver, Interview
The book is Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much. It’s available in bookstores and online now. Find out more at www.winewitchonfire.com.
You can get my free Ultimate Food and Wine Pairing guide here: nataliemaclean.com/guide
