This fall, Quidni Estate Winery, which also has three
bed-and-breakfast rooms, was voted number one on Trip Adviser for specialty
lodging in Penticton .
Owner Marty Gunderson
was ecstatic – rightfully so. The award signalled what a profound turnaround
has occurred at this winery which, under another name and other owners, had not
been successful.
It is all in a day’s work for Marty, even if it is the first
venture in the wine business for this Edmonton
businessman and entrepreneur.
Born in Fort McMurray in
1972, he grew up in Edmonton and plunged into
business without bothering to finish a degree at the University of Alberta
He has been involved in the financial services industry for
17 years. His currant activities in that field include a directorship of the
National Crowdfunding Association of Canada. He is also involved in real estate
development and that was how he became a winery owner in the Okanagan.
Quidni had opened in 2011 as 3 Mile Estate Winery and
slipped into receivership in the fall of 2014.
“I was involved in real estate development and one of my
partners had an interest in this winery and asked me if I knew anybody that
wants to buy a winery,” Marty says. “I said I don’t know anybody but let me
check. Then I was asking other people if they want to buy a winery.”
On of those he contacted (through mutual friends) was Todd
Moore (right), a captain in the West Kelowna fire
department and a veteran consulting winemaker.
Todd, a one-time bicycle racer who is 49, started his
winemaking career when he was 21 with Lewis Brothers, a fruit winery (now
closed) in Grand Prairie .
He went to work at Quails’ Gate Estate Winery in 1991. He went to Australia for a
vintage in 1993, returning in 1994 to help work the vintage at Blue Mountain Estate Winery before rejoining Quails’
Gate for two years.
From there, he moved to Vancouver
Island in 1996 as the winemaker at Cherry Point for four
consecutive vintages. Even after joining the West Kelowna
fire department in 2000, he has kept a foot in winemaking as a consultant.
“The fire department was putting food on my table,” Todd
says. “Winemaking became a hobby … but I love making wine.”
Todd was not interested in buying a winery when Marty
approached him. But he offered to help Marty with the due diligence on making
the purchase. He also was willing to run it. Marty thought that was an excellent
idea. He bought the winery and relaunched it this year as Quidni Estate Winery.
Quidni is Latin for “why not.” The name was inspired when
Marty got tired of explaining why he had bought the winery and just answered
“why not?”
“I have always been a big fan of wine,” he says now. “It’s a
fun business. For me … the fact that you are encouraging people to come
together and enjoy some great wine with friends and family, frankly that’s been
the big thing for me. I just liked the idea of doing fun things, now that I am
a little bit older. I am not necessarily making money. Wineries don’t make a
whole lot of money.”
The deal was closed during the 2014 vintage. “Three quarters
of the way through the harvest!” Todd remembers. “I came in and I worked one
day with [the former owners]. We crushed a ton and a half of Gewürztraminer. I
watched to see where you plug things in; then I was on my own.”
Not entirely on his own. “I think I pulled in every favour I
have been owed in the last 20 years, by getting people to help me out,” Todd
says. But he was able to make or bottle about 1,500 cases of wine, enough to
get Quidni through its first season.
The potential of the winery begins with its location right
beside Naramata Road .
Marty Gunderson invested in
additional production equipment and in improvements to make the building itself
more appealing to wine tourists. The tasting room interior was refinished with
barrel staves.
“We spent quite a bit of money renovating,” Marty says. “We
put in what we call the Quidni catwalk. That gives a wine tourist the ability
to overlook all of the wine preparation areas. They can see all of the tanks,
the crusher, the destemmer without having to go all the way down. It is a way
they can experience the winery without just tasting the wine. We want to show
them why we are so passionate about making wine.”
This is all part of Quidni’s effort to give visitors a
memorable experience, so that they return or become repeat buyers of wines.
That is a tough objective, given that there are almost 40 wineries on the
Naramata Bench, all competing to impress. The Trip Advisor award indicates that
Quidni made considerable progress this year.
Marty has just begun. This summer he added winemaker Robert
Thielicke to Quidni’s staff. Robert (right) had been the winemaker at JoieFarm for a
number of years and before that was assistant winemaker at Mt. Boucherie
Vineyards. Robert is part of Marty’s strategy to grow Quidni to a 15,000 case
winery over several years.
In the 2015 vintage, Quidni roughly doubled production from
its first vintage. That included 250 cases of Viognier; 100 cases of Riesling,
450 cases of an aromatic white blend of Pinot Blanc, Riesling, and Gewurztraminer; and 450 cases of what Robert calls a “delicious”
sparkling rosé. As well, more Merlot has been crushed for Quorto, the winery’s
port-style wine. And there will be a range of table wines.
Quidni wines are offered in three tiers, beginning with two
affordable (under $15) blends, WhyNot
White and WhyNot Red. There is a varietal series, all under $20. The small lot
top tier, under $30 a bottle, are marketed as barrel select wines.
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