Garage brand wine

When Frank Gregus and Maurice Hamilton decided to start a winery in April 2005, the award-winning amateur winemakers from Vancouver didn't have anything except a dream and a business plan. In rapid order, they needed to find a facility, equipment, grapes and virtually everything else required to make, store, bottle and retail wine. A location was secured in an industrial park in New Westminster, a Vancouver suburb located 25 minutes from the downtown core. The drive to create an urban winery fell into place from there.

Five years later, Pacific Breeze Winery has made a name for itself by winning countless international awards, including top honours as Winery of the Year at the 2010 InterVin International Wine Awards. Cassini Cellars from the British Columbia, Norman Hardie Vineyards and Winery from Ontario, Spy Valley Wines from New Zealand and Tawse Winery from Ontario round out InterVin's top five producers.

The partners knew that they wanted to source grapes from ideal growing locations in California, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. They also knew they had zero interest in owning a vineyard.

The business plan was partly inspired by a wine tour that Hamilton took to Woodinville, Washington, where he visited numerous wineries, including Betz Family Winery, which was then operating out of a warehouse facility akin to a garage.

"Having a garage winery and not owning any vineyards is not common in Canada, but it's very widespread in the United States," said Gregus, who retired from a sales and marketing position with PepsiCo Inc. to concentrate full-time on the winery.

Gregus and his partner traveled to California and elsewhere to seek out grapes for their venture. They made appointments with growers with the same stipulation. The visitors wanted to taste finished wines produced with their grapes.

"What we did know was winemaking," Gregus said. "We knew we wanted to make wines that made people say wow."What Gregus came to realize is the grapes that delivered the profile he was looking for didn't always come from the most fashionable addresses. For instance, he recalls rejecting fruit from a vineyard located next door to the fabled Opus One vineyard in the Oakville region of the Napa Valley.

Instead, they opted for bolder, more flavourful raw material they encountered in the more humble Lake County district in California's north coast region. "Good wine is good wine," Gregus says matter-of-factly. "You judge it by what's in the glass."

The same could be said of Pacific Breeze Winery's production. The tarmac that surrounds the warehouse facility doesn't inspire the same romantic reaction as seeing undulating vineyards, but the juice in the glass certainly leaves a lasting impression.