Retirement is not an option for Donald Triggs, a key player in the blossoming of Canada’s modern wine industry and co-owner of soon-to-be launched Culmina Family Estate Winery.
A native of rural Manitoba, representing the sixth generation on the family farm, Don left the nest to complete a degree in agriculture from the University of Manitoba and an MBA at Western. He started his career in Ontario doing sales and marketing with Colgate Palmolive. In 1972 he moved to John Labatt’s wine division where his experience ranged from fixing troubled sectors of winery operations to running large wine producers in Canada and abroad.
In the hope of staying in Canada with his family, Don joined Fisions PLC based in Vancouver, taking their troubled North American horticultural division from money loser to industry leader. With the 1989 North American Free Trade Agreement around the corner, Don risked everything. He joined forces with Alan Jackson and former Labatt colleagues who pooled their life savings to buy the brewer’s wine division.
Renamed Vincor International with Don as CEO, it grew to become the biggest wine enterprise in Canada and seventh largest in the world. When Constellation Brands US acquired Vincor in 2006, Don resigned and set out to build Culmina with wife Elaine as partner and daughter Sara as sales and marketing manager.
Don has lured Bordeaux-trained Pascal Madevon (formerly winemaker at Osoyoos Larose) to the promising scenario at Culmina.
Read more of the original stories celebrated in our 30th-anniversary issue.
Okanagan Men’s Shed sharing their talents
Call them men of purpose. Now they're looking for projects. A group of retired and semi-retired Kelowna men has launched a pilot project called Okanagan Men's Shed -- based on a popular movement that began in Australia -- to put their talents to work on projects large...
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Local swimmers join Team BC at Western Canada Summer Games
SwimBC announces the 32 athletes selected to Team BC for the 2015 Western Canada Summer Games, including local swimmers from Kelowna, Kamloops, Penticton and Salmon Arm. The team has been selected to represent Team BC at the 2015 Western Canada Summer Games, which...
2015 Okanagan Life Best of BC Wine Awards
Okanagan Life is proud to announce the winners of the Valley’s newest wine competition, the 2015 Okanagan Life Best of BC Wine Awards. The inaugural event, held March 8 at the heritage landmark Laurel Packinghouse, Kelowna’s signature venue for wine events, was...
May-June Preview
The next issue of Okanagan Life Magazine is in production. Don't miss out Your ad message will reach over 490,000 exposures over three months. Email: paul@okanaganlife.com Ad space deadline: May 1 See our Media Kit.
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My wife and I recently watched in horror as scenes from Mosul in northern Iraq were broadcast on the evening news. It wasn’t the bombing of a city or the execution of soldiers we saw. It was the fevered wielding of sledgehammers against some of mankind’s greatest...
