Time is Everything!

One day with my wife's encouragement, I decided to start a website with 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. The first step, learn to build a website, the 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, and buying out smaller wineries. Restaurants and guest rooms were being added it was all happening so fast!

I thought about this yesterday as I realised 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 understand, 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 discovered 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 with in a few blocks of the US border and have a cabin, So we have the opportunity to taste many Washington wines. We stopped the website as the Canadian site took far too much time to maintain.

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. 

We currently list over 1100, wineries, meaderies and cideries. We have 1000s of photos and numerous feature articles.

~ We are on FaceBook and Twitter 

 What It Takes!

As you know, I am the owner and sole writer for the very popular website www.winesofcanada.com. I began developing websites in 1992. I started with the World of Wines.  As interest in the wonderful world of wine grew among the public and the number of wineries in Canada greatly increased, I switch my attention to Canada. It was a surprise to me that I was able to obtain the domain Winesofcanada.com. 

Back in the early ’90s, there was no “.ca”. My main focus was to list all wineries by province and tell a short story about them. It took a great deal of research. After completing this task and seeing my daily hits grow from 4-5 visits a day to over 300 a day. I decided to add more content.  Today I provided information on all aspects of the industry. I write wine reviews and tell about my visits to the wineries. I include Meaderies and Cider House. I have explored and written about the history of winemaking in Canada. I tell the stories of many of the most influential people in the industry. 

Back in 2017, I started  my most popular pages. “ The Wineries to Watch for in 2017” and the “Best Wineries to Visit in 2017”. These pages were first published days prior to January 1 2017.

I published new pages every year since.  Today I am already writing the pages for 2023. 

The work on these pages begins once the previous year is published. I review all resources possible, TV, Newspapers, and Magazines. my peers in the industry, my friends, other writers, and of course, research.

 The hardest page to do is actually “the Best Wineries to Visit”. There is an old saying which I believe is factual “ When one is happy with a hospitality established, they tell two or three people about it. When one is unhappy, they tell ten or more people”.

 In reassuring the wineries, it became obvious that the number one concern for an unhappy visit was the attitude of the staff!

In most situations, a good attitude leads to positive behaviours and a negative attitude leads to negative behaviours. An employee who believes in the company’s core values is more likely to show positivity in the workplace. Organizations where employees like each other and trust the management are more likely to have positive attitudes.

 It does not matter how good the wines are, how good your food is, or how amazing your facilities are if the owners and staff have a negative attitude! 

Numerous wineries that one might say would be among the Best Wineries to Visit have not made the 2023 page simply because of hospitality concerns. It amazes me!