Photo: Elaine and Donald Triggs
In the words of that great people’s philosopher, Yogi Berra,
it is Déjà Vu all over again for Donald and Elaine Triggs.
Culmina Family Estate Winery, founded in 2007 by the Triggs
Family, has been acquired by Arterra Wines Canada, the successor to Vincor
International – which Donald established in the early 1990s.
Vincor had become the 14th largest wine company in
the world by 2006 when it was taken over by Constellation Brands, then the
world’s largest wine company. In 2016, Constellation spun off its Canadian
wineries and related businesses to the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund. The
Canadian assets were renamed Arterra Canada Wines.
This is Arterra’s second acquisition of an Okanagan winery. It
bought Laughing Stock Vineyards in 2017. Arterra’s Okanagan portfolio also includes
Jackson Triggs Vintners, Inniskillin Okanagan, Sumac Ridge Estate Winery, Black
Sage Vineyards, SunRock Vineyards, See Ya Later Ranch and 50% of Nk’Mip
Cellars.
Arterra also owns or controls about 1,000 acres of vineyards,
most of it in the South Okanagan.
In 2007, the year after Constellation swallowed Vincor, Don
and Elaine bought property on what is now the Golden Mile sub-appellation to
develop a major vineyard for the winery they opened in 2013.
“Retirement to me is a
nasty word because it implies stopping,” Donald told me at the time. “I don’t think life is about stopping. It is
about continuing and doing what you love.”
Clearly, he has had a
change of heart. The Arterra announcement says: “Don and Elaine are planning
for retirement, but will be supporting the transition over the next several
months. Sara [their daughter] will be joining Arterra as sales and marketing
director in continued support of the vision, strategy and planning for Culmina.”
Donald, who was born in Manitoba in 1944, has had a long and distinguished
career in the Canadian wine business. After getting degrees in agriculture and business administration, Donald spent several
years in marketing with Colgate-Palmolive before joining the winery arm of John
Labatt Ltd. in 1972. Four years later, he was sent to turn around Labatt’s
money-losing winery in California.
His performance there caught the eye of
headhunters. In 1982, he was recruited to run the Vancouver-based North
American operations of Fisons PLC, a British fertilizer company. While Elaine
was becoming a chartered accountant, Donald was promoted to Fisons head office
in Britain, where he ran a division.
At heart, Donald is an entrepreneur who
enjoys building companies. “I’ve always
had this yearning to be in my own business,” he said. “And I really had a
twinge in my bones for the wine business.”
In 1989, when Labatt decided to sell its the
wine business to the managers, Donald came back from Britain to lead the team
that turned it into a thriving wine business. It soon took over T.G. Bright and
Co, a wine company started in 1874. Thus, Arterra dates its founding as 1874.
In 1994, Donald and former partner Alan
Jackson gave their surnames to Jackson-Triggs when that became the new name for
Brights and other winery assets in 1994. In turn, that was the vehicle that was
transformed into Vincor.
When Donald and Elaine decided to get back
into the wine business in 2007, they looked in detail at five Okanagan
sites, in some cases taking soil and temperature readings, before buying 44
acres in 2007 from Olivier Combret and his family, then the owners of Antelope
Ridge Estate Winery.
There is a delightful sentimental streak in how Donald and
Elaine named their vineyard blocks. The former Combret property is called Arise
Vineyard. One of Donald’s ancestors several generations ago was a purser in the
first British garrison in the Barbados who settled on a 10-acre farm that he
called Arise.
In 2009, while Arise was being planted, Donald and Elaine
bought another 60 acres on two hillside benches above Arise. Here, two new
vineyards were planted. The lower of these two is called Stan’s Bench, named
for Elaine’s father. The upper bench, a cool northeast slope that rises to 595
meters, is called Margaret’s Bench, for Donald’s mother.
By acquiring Culmina, Arterra adds a solid selection of premium
wines to its portfolio, including Riesling, Chardonnay, Bordeaux varietals and
blends and an exceptional white called Unicus, made from the first planting of Grüner
Veltliner in British Columbia.
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