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When Trent and Ria Kitsch talk about how proud they are of their babies, you might want them to specify.
There are the actual babies – a two-year-old son and infant daughter — but then there’s also the award-winning home building company and, now, the award-winning winery.
“Everything is a baby,” Ria said with a laugh, “the business and the babies.”
Yes, the man who brought you Saxx underwear (thanks to Dragons’ Den) has moved into new areas.
Trent’s focus is now building homes with his Kitsch Construction and Development Company.
But the family has also just lent its name to Kitsch Wines and is selling Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Riesling from a family home in East Kelowna.
So what, you ask? Everyone in the Okanagan dabbles in real estate and bottles wine in their garage.
Well … maybe, but this garage is different.
Said-garage is attached to a home that has a name: The Granite Chateau Estate. It is 15,000 square feet. And, yes, Trent built it for his parents.
So impressive was this project, it won two gold “Tommies” from the Canadian Home Builders Association this year (best single family home, $3M-$5M, and excellence in kitchen design in the Thompson-Okanagan).
As you might expect, you can’t just make any old wine in a house like that, and they didn’t.
The Kitsch Wines 2015 Pinot Gris was a silver-medal winner at this year’s Okanagan Wine Festivals awards.
Wow, exactly how is this all happening so quickly? Hard work and determination with a healthy dose of risk-reward balanced by youthful enthusiasm, Ria said.
“I don’t think we expected an award,” she said, “simply because you don’t want to expect that stuff — and we were new, it was our first vintage. We were proud of what we created, but we definitely didn’t expect the award.”
From the outside, it appears they have the golden touch of Midas. That’s not what it felt like inside, Ria said.
The difference with wine, she said, is you give up control. “You get the grapes, and that’s what you have.
“You have to be really patient and, obviously, put a lot of capital out front,” she added. “You are risking a lot. You’ve got a lot on the line. You can’t control it.”
The venture began when they relocated home to Kelowna from Vancouver after selling Saxx. They bought property in 2013 and decided to replace an older apple orchard with grapes. While a large-scale winery might one day come to fruition, they started thinking they would grow some grapes and make some wine for the kitchen table to begin.
That’s when winemaker Grant Biggs entered the picture. Originally hired as the vineyard manager, it was Biggs who “really helped us feel like we could do this,” Ria said.
Biggs had worked in the wine industry for a decade in retail and as a sommelier, but it wasn’t until he met Trent and Ria that he started calling the shots as winemaker.
While some didn’t give the young trio (all in their early to mid-30s) much chance of success, it was their fresh approach that’s led to their early success, Biggs said.
“Where our edge comes into play is the fact we are youthful,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve taken our foot off the gas since (we began).”
Now, Kitsch Wines expects one or all of its varietals will sell out by August. It is good wine, but it is also small lots (fewer than 2,000 cases).
Really, that’s a bit of masterful planning: make really great wine so that it sells out, because the garage where you make that wine is also your tasting room. Now, if all goes to plan, Biggs said he’ll have his space back just in time to prepare for 2017.
As for those new vintages, Kitsch Wines plans on offering the three whites plus Pinot Noir and Rose.
These are hectic days for the young family, but Ria said because they’re both from Kelowna, they have a supportive network to help.
“As Kelowna people, we are just so blessed to be from here,” she said.
Kitsch Wines will have an open house on Saturday, July 16. Tickets and details are available at the Kitsch Wines website.
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