How we started Icellars - Part 5

Hello,

Today will be Part 5 of how we got into wine business. To those 46 people who responded to my feedback request; I thank you so much for taking time to write me.

Starting with the 2011 harvest I was volunteering at our next door winery Coyote's Run. For my works they offered me wine bottles but I asked them if I could get 20-30 kg of grapes instead. I purchased the basic home winemaking needs like 2.5 gallon carboys, yeast, airlocks etc. One of the books I read was a "How to make wine for amateur home winemakers" a very basic but easy to understand book. I made my first ever wine, a Merlot, then. Everything looked alright in the beginning but later the wine turned to be a vinegar with a teriible taste and smell, never bottled.

I tried again in 2012 with Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc. This time I did not do the same mistakes ( I made other mistakes) and the wines seemed tasty enough for us. I still have a few bottles of them in my cellar.

In 2013, we surprisingly got 170 kg of Chardonnay and 700 kg of Merlot from our 2 years old vineyard. I picked them with the help of my friends. Later Chardonnay turned to be a faulty wine as I did not have proper equipment and any cooling. But the 2013 Merlot was a big success as I bought 2 used wine barrels and aged the wine. So I was off to a great carier.
 

We continued to plant more wines in 2013 and 2014 and reached 11 net planted acres. Our first official harvest would be in 2014. That year was also the year that I need to go through applications of so many licences. Below are some of the licences and permits you need to get to start a commercial winery in Ontario;

- Licence to Process grapes from the Grape Growers of Ontario 
- Excise Duty licence from CRA
- Manufacturer's Licence from the AGCO
- Licence to Sell Alcohol from the AGCO
- Licence to offer wine by glass from the AGCO
- Membership at VQA
- Site Plan approval from the NOTL Municipality
- Septic System design&build approval from Niagara Region
- Application to the LCBO to be considered a supplier (even you do not intend to sell anything to them)
- Various organizations like Niagara Parks Authority, Fire Department, Niagara Conservation Authority, Archeology Committee and many more

Usually new wineries hire an experienced consultant to do all these paperwork. But to save money and time, I did and finalized all of the above myself diving deep into the arms of bureaucracy. I must say that all of the above organizations were taking their jobs very seriously. I , my wife Elif and my teenager sons all went through background checks if we were criminals or not.

As we became a fully licensed winery and had our first official harvest in 2014, we were commuting from Oakville, 83 kms each way and working long hours during harvest. My soft engineer hands were slowly turning into a real farmer's hands. Every night when I got back home, my back was aching. But I was also so happy to do all of these and I could not sleep to go back to the winery next morning.

To be continued

Adnan icel
Owner&Winemaker