Friday, December 28, 2018

One day with my wife's encouragement I decided to start a website the subject being the wines and wineries of Canada.. A rather easy task (the pamphlet at the local government liquor store listed 25 wineries) not too difficult. First step, learn to build a website, second step purchase a domain name and website hosting.

It was a learn as I go process that did not take too much of my time, about three days consisting of twenty to twenty five hours, after all there were only 25 wines, according to the pamphlet. With wineries in British Columbia and Ontario there would be three pages, the Home Page, British Columbia page and an Ontario page.

It would be just a matter of time before I would be done and the site up and running.. but then I decided I would have time for some research into Canada's wineries. Information on the internet was very limited, the year was 1992.

I came across a Book called "Vintage Canada" by Tony Aspler in 1993 oh my gosh! there were wineries in Quebec and Nova Scotia also there were wineries in different regions of Ontario. There was so much more to the wines of Canada I was now in a race against time to catch up and make my website current.

Robert Orben said "Time flies. It's up to you to be the navigator". and so the years passed and the website grew.
New pages were added regularly. I had the time to deal with it all; The nineties came and went, a new millennium had begun Canada's wine industry grew, her wines became more popular. Her ice wines became world renowned and time became my enemy.

The number of wineries grew and soon I was boasting about the five hundred wineries in Canada. The website had over a million visitors in 2009 the website had grown to over 150 pages. In 2010 the list of new winery licenses was amazing; In 2018 we will have over 800 wineries in Canada.

Rapid changes were taking place. Wineries were adding new brands, changing their names, wineries were opening regions were no one thought grapes could grow before, virtual wineries opened. Wine companies were forming, buying out smaller wineries. Restaurants and guest rooms were being added it was all happening so fast!

I thought about this yesterday as I realized I had spent over six hours communicating with just one winery; one owner. I do not regret this time. The website is my passion. I just don't know how I am going to find the time
to remain Canada's number one wine website supporting not only the wines of Canada but our country.

Time is money... www.winesofcanada is taking my time but not providing the money. It's an old cliche that we all know and understands, but to what extent do you really apply it in your life. Time is our most precious resource because it is the only one that is truly scarce.

As Canada's wine industry grows and grows .. I need time, time from the wineries of Canada. I need them to take the time and provide information about their winery, give me information and I will tell the world. We thank the many who do..

I have had marketing and hospitality managers from the big wineries telling me they don't have time to answer my questions. My response is get off facebook, get off twitter and take time to answer the questionnaire I send. I'm promoting your winery for free and it would give me time to make sure your information is current. There is always someone with the time to point out to me that certain things they deem important are missing.

We first discover the wonderful world of wines on our honeymoon when by chance we ended up in Napa Valley
Why did we start a second website www.winesofwoi.com simple we live within a few blocks of the US border and have a cabin So we have the opportunity to taste many Washington wines. We discontinued this site due to the tremendous growth of the Canadian wine industry.

Time now for me to make lunch. You have to spend some time sleeping, eating, playing, relaxing and growing within yourself, time with your friends and family.

For those of you who never found the time to return my e-mails, my calls, or greet me when I visited not to worry I found the time to list you as well.

Happy New Year

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Tuesday, December 11, 2018



Have a safe and happy holiday season


Happy New Year!
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