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.
Daphne Odjig Exhibition to Mar 12
Acclaimed artist and activist Daphne Odjig was recently honoured with three Canadian stamps. Hambleton Galleries in Kelowna is showing a retrospective of her work until March 12. Read the Okanagan Life story on Daphne (below) published in Jan/Feb 2008 or download a PDF.
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Short-listed Authors Read in Penticton Feb. 24
Okanagan writers Adam Lewis Schroeder and Darcie Friesen Hossack will read from their books, short-listed for Commonwealth Writers’ prizes, at Hooked on Books in Penticton, Thursday, Feb. 24 at 7 pm.
2011 Progress is Here
Okanagan Life’s annual special promotional issue Progress 2011 is now available.
OSO Music of the Mountains: Mar 5-6
William Hopson, joins the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra performing Daetwyler’s Concerto for Alphorn. Brahms’ First Symphony completes this tribute to the Alps. Kelowna March 5 and Vernon March 6. www.okanagansymphony.com.
The Little Company That Could
Bucking the dour headlines, Anodyne Electronics Manufacturing Corp. (AEM) is a bright spot in the firmament. With little more than a year under its belt the new company has managed to keep 49 manufacturing jobs from going south of the border …
Pink Shirt Day: Feb. 23
The Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs are once again joining the Provincial and National movement to celebrate Pink Shirt Day – Bullying Stops Here, on Wednesday February 23, 2011. We are encouraging the Okanagan community to wear pink on that day to show that bullying will no longer be tolerated. Boys and Girls Clubs across the Okanagan will be participating in planned activities that provide education, awareness and teach skills …
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