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Friday, August 28, 2009

Industry Growing Pains

Recession Hitting Ontario Craft Wineries

Well as Ontario is gaining approximately 8 new wineries in Prince Edward County and 4 in Lake Erie North Shore (and probably more that I am not aware of in Niagara) we are also seeing some cracks in the operations of some wineries that have been on the block for a little while.
Thomas and Vaughan as well as Stonechurch Vinyards have been put up for sale because of financial difficulties and Steve Kocsis of Mountain Wine Company and Daniel Pambianchi of Maleta of Maleta Estate Winery discuss the finacial tribulations they are facing because of the current recession.
We visited Stonechurch recently and found it a very family oriented winery and had a great experience there.
I would be sad to see it go under.
An LCBO rebate program that was set in place to increase the wineries return on LCBO sales ended in march of this year. This has hurt Mountain Wine Company.
The saying that goes if you want to make a million dollars in a winery then start out with 10 million applies here. I have the utmost admiration for these winery operators who basically tie their nervous systems to a business that is not really known for its profit potential at the best of times.
Click the title and the link at the top of this entry for more specifics on this topic

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