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.
Summerland business launches new premium brand
Highland Maple launched their new Saint Q premium brand maple syrup at this year's Okanagan Fall Wine Festival. Saint Q is a new ultra-premium maple syrup brand made from Nordic White Maple trees. These rare sugar maple trees, a special highland “Rock Maples” are...
Valley First steps in with $50,000 donation to help teach financial literacy
CANsave, a financial literacy program designed in 2015 by college students has caught the attention of teachers throughout BC, and Valley First is stepping up to lend its support. Valley First initially pledged $25,000 to the program but upon seeing the overwhelming...
Grape beginnings: BC Wine Museum remastered
Kelowna, a hundred years ago: After a day working in the orchards, you sit down on a dusty porch, kick of your boots, and enjoy a nice glass of Logana Loganberry wine. That’s right, long before the award winning Merlots and Chardonnays of the Okanagan wine market...
50 years of Wentworth Music
It’s no accident that Wentworth Music has been voted one of the Top 3 Music Stores in the world by the National Association of Music Merchants. For 50 years Wentworth Music has proudly contributed to the cultural life of the Okanagan Valley. Our retail outlets in...
Fitness app research combine psychology and technology
When fitness apps include personal touches such as individualized goals and contact with a ‘real live trainer,’ users tend to exercise more consistently, a UBC study concludes. Mary Jung, an assistant professor in UBC Okanagan’s School of Health and Exercise Sciences,...
Happy feet, happy heart
I am a late bloomer in the world of dance. The 1950s song I Can’t Tell A Waltz From A Tango has rung true for most of my adult life. As a young girl I attended social dances with my parents. (I don’t believe there was a choice back then.) These were special occasions...
