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.
A recipe for success, College alumnus wins big at investors’ forum
Hungry for business, Okanagan College alumnus Donnie Ungaro credits making following his passion key to his success at Venture Okanagan – $5,000 grand prize winner.
UBC Okanagan opens display area for controversial art work
Public display of art may make some uncomfortable, but may also open debate Art, controversial or not, deserves to be displayed. That’s the rationale behind UBC Okanagan’s new ‘StART the Conversation’—a space dedicated to artwork from UBC’s Public Art Collection that...
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Ringo Starr to perform in the Okanagan
Fresh off a 2015 All Starr Tour, Ringo Starr announces another string of tour dates with his current All-Starr Band, bringing the band he doesn’t want to stop playing with coast-to-coast across North America from October 1 to 31. The All-Starr Band will perform in...
Okanagan environmentalist lends her voice to Global Chorus
Released last fall, the environmental daily mediation book Global Chorus: 365 Voices on the Future of the Planet has an Okanagan connection. Among the leading environmentalists contributing to the book is Okanagan Basin Water Board executive director Anna Warwick...
In Person: Anna Warwick Sears, water watch
“Water binds us together, as humans and with all other species, as shared inhabitants of our watery planet,” says Anna Warwick Sears, executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board. “This bond is the link to our future.” When someone has this kind of passion for...
Angel Investors’ Forum underway at Okanagan College
$5,000 awarded to local entrepreneur with the best pitch Students from Enactus Okanagan College are hosting the ninth Venture Okanagan Investors Forum on Thursday, April 9 in Kelowna. The local entrepreneur with the best pitch is awarded a cash prize of $5,000 from...