I checked into a motel last night for a month after driving up with all my tools, clothes and Scruffy. Today we did a perimeter check of the fence to make sure there weren't any dog sized holes that would need patching. Scruffy made friends with the neighbours horse and they played with each other through the fence before Scruffy decided he needed to roll in the dirt for 20 minutes... All further evidence that he was a farm dog at some point before I adopted him.
We got all the paperwork to transfer crop insurance over to our name for the year. For those of you who don't know, Amy and I purchased a 5 acre vineyard from the Wild Goose family on which we will eventually be living and where we will be starting Canada's first Custom Crush Winery along with my business partner who I will be announcing shortly. We will be providing a facility and services to private groups who would like to startup small wine brands and others who need additional crushing and winemaking capacity.
Over the coming months I will be posting about my experiences with the vineyard operation as we learn the ropes and the construction of our facility. We will also be moving a small cabin onto the property where Amy and I will be living. She is staying in Vancouver for the month of March until I have the living arrangements ready to go.
Feel free to post or request anything specific as we go along. This is all a major learning experience for us so please offer any advice along the way.
-Alan
About Me
- Alan Dickinson
- Okanagan Falls, BC, Canada
- Alan is a wine industry professional who left his job and life in Vancouver to live on a vineyard in Okanagan Falls and start a small winery on the property. He and his fiance and their two dogs will be operating the vineyard and documenting everything as they go.
How many bottles will you get each season?
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of grapes you growing?
Hey Paul,
ReplyDeleteRiesling, Gewurztraminer and Merlot. We are replanting two sections with Pinot Noir and more riesling.
We will be producing wine for other groups but will be doing some small batch wines of our own. Total production capacity is in the 10-15000 case (12 bottles to a case) range depending on needs for barrel aging.