PERDUE, Sask. – Sue Echlin and Vance Lester are passionate about wine. The co-proprietors of Living Sky Winery spend hours sampling the wines of other producers to further their own skills.
The work is paying off for the husband and wife team, who recently won bronze at the Canadian Wine Awards for their Juliett Cherry port dessert fruit wine.
“This is the first year that Saskatchewan has had any sort of presence. They e-mailed us the results in September and we were really excited,” said Echlin.
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Inspired in 2005 by touring British Columbia and sampling fruit wines, the couple planted a fruit orchard the same year on their quarter section farm east of Perdue.
Cherries and haskap were planted first, followed by raspberries, black currents and rhubarb.
“We planted everything so that it would all mature at the same time,” Echlin said.
Hiring consultant Dominic Rivard in 2006 was a key strategy and part of the business plan.
“We recognize that fruit wines suffer from a bit of stigma on the Prairies, and the artisan quality to wine making that Dominic brings to the table is key to our ability to change people’s minds and convince them that fruit wines can be as complex and enjoyable as grape varieties.”
Living Sky Winery is one of only two wineries in the province so working through various levels of government is challenging.
“It’s such a new industry here … They wanted us to succeed. It’s just that most of them had never been to a winery,” she said.
Echlin said focused and creative marketing has been their constant.
“So from a marketing side, there’s been a lot of thinking outside the box, which has actually worked better than we expected. Social media’s been huge for us. Forty to 50 percent of our new business is probably driven off of Twitter and Facebook.
“We’ve had to do a lot of guerrilla marketing, ways to get our wine into people’s mouths. We’re hooking up with lots of chefs.”
A home delivery permit allows the winery to take online orders and deliver to customers. Living Sky is also available at Saskatoon’s Farmers’ Market.
The Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority is reviewing the cottage wine policy and contracts for producers, resulting in increased flexibility and opportunity for cottage winery operators.
Echlin believes the Saskatchewan climate has untapped potential for growing fruit wine. Winter cold and dry summers toughen the fruit plants.
“The hardiness to the plants develops a tastier, higher sugar fruit that’s better for wine making,” she said.
The couple puts in many long days.
“It’s finding time for everything is the big challenge for us. So we don’t get a lot of rest and we work all the time,” said Lester.
“We’re still both working off the farm and trying to get the winery going. Early stages of the startup, we need to work to have the cash flow happening because we self-financed the whole thing.
“It looks like the business will grow. But it’s really hard to predict what the business will look like,” he said.
In the future, one of them will work full-time in the winery with hired help.
“Hopefully this time next year, we’ll be cashing checks, not writing them. Hopefully not working 24-hour days,” Lester said.
