adapt our services,” Mark said. A sole venture into selling labelled, finished wine led the Wendenburgs to maintain the original focus of their business while expanding their advertising service.
As a favour to an acquaintance who was closing his winery, Jackie and Mark arranged for the sale of the remaining inventory to wine merchants and restaurants.
“Mark and I decided that we wanted to stay focused on bulk wines, but also realized we could be helpful by including ads from businesses wanting to sell or buy large lots of finished wine on our website,” Jackie said. There is no commission in these situations, only the cost of the ad. Wineries from Spain, Italy, New Zealand and Australia have approached WineAspect to sell their bulk wine in B.C.
“We refused because we want to promote only B.C. wines,” Jackie said. “We’re nationalistic that way. In addition, large commercial wineries have their own brokers and methods of acquiring offshore wine,” Mark said. He does not see a problem with big wineries buying large quantities of offshore wine rather than purchasing excess from B.C. wineries.
“In my opinion, there would not be small wineries without the large wineries. They were the trailblazers of today’s industry. They should not be mandated in any way to purchase excess B.C. grapes. The market will regulate itself in time,” he said. However, he does think there is an advantage in being able to say a wine is made entirely from grapes grown in B.C.
“We have a pristine area and ideal conditions to grow and create some of the best wines in the world —sparkling, white, red, rose and, of course, icewine,” he said.
Every wine-producing region in the world has wine brokers. “Ontario has the Niagara Wine Exchange, operated by Frank and Joanne Neufeld and Allan Jackson of Jackson-Triggs. I’m not sure about the other provinces. No one except NWE has contacted us,” Mark said. Asked if he could foresee a niche for a Canada-wide brokerage, Mark replied, “Yes, when all the provinces
26 British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Spring 2015
agree on interprovincial trade or hell freezes over, whichever comes first!” In B.C. the job is particularly challenging because of the distances between wineries and the small quantities produced.
Just as much paperwork is required
for small transactions as for large ones, something Jackie knows well. Regardless, she said, “I love doing it. It helps people to prosper while working together for their mutual
benefit.” “Looking to the future, we’re contemplating brokering apple cider and other ciders. This business and industry seem to be growing quickly. And we’re looking to grow our advertising section,” Mark said. “Our primary aim is to be helpful to
small B.C. wineries. Although we have enjoyed considerable initial success, we’re not interested in building a huge company,” Jackie said.
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