Think on your feet.

In this episode we follow the Coutinho family as they guide their new venture to a global pandemic and turn it into an opportunity to learn and grow. If you love wine, business and the thrill of new ventures. Then sit back and enjoy Avondale Sky Winery.

https://avondalesky.com/

What is Avondale Sky Winery?

If you love wine, business and the thrill of new ventures. Then Avondale Sky Winery is the show for you.

In 2019, the Coutinho family took a leap of faith. They bought a winery with no previous experience in the winemaking industry. Nestled in rural Nova Scotia, this podcast captures the ups and downs of their first 2 years running Avondale Sky Winery.

This is the story of risk, passion and family. A story about rural life and community. A story of adapting to survive and learning to thrive.
To learn more about the winery or to buy some of the wine featured visit: https://avondalesky.com/

Unknown: Welcome to Avondale sky
winery.

Rhys Waters: This is a story of
risk, passion and family. A

story about rural life and
community. A story about

adapting to survive and learning
to thrive. If you love wine

business and the thrill of new
ventures then sit back and enjoy

Avondale sky winery. This week
we follow the Cupertino family

as they guide the new venture
through a global pandemic and

turn it into an opportunity to
grow and learn.

It's a normal day at Avondale
sky winery, and Kona, Shawn is

leading some guests in the
tasting session.

Shawn: Champagne you buy you
know it's from Champagne France

and Bordeaux is from Bordeaux,
tidal Bay. You find it anywhere

else in the world. You know it's
from Nova Scotia maybe with 100%

Nova Scotia grapes
stylistically, it's a crisp,

clean, aromatic white wine. The
main stimulant says it has to

pair well we'll see. So we're
gonna we're gonna have a ride

that represents us as a region.
Yeah, you wanted to? First of

all do first of all, we have to
do it well, which is aromatic

white wines. We do that superbly
well in Nova Scotia, but also

should go with their cuisine,
which is a lot of beautiful

secrets. So

Rhys Waters: Shawn educates and
entertains the group of

tourists. It's hard to believe
that only two years ago, the

Cortino family were brand new to
the wine business with roles

divided between the five owners.
Dad Louis is thriving.

Unknown: I'm still learning. But
what I am enjoying is the whole

vineyard experience. The boys
have focused on the enology

side, you know the winemaking
side and wine sales and I'm

really interested interested in
the viticulture and of things,

you know, what's making these
things grow. And so I'm enjoying

the that role as the as working
with the viticulture people and

with a vineyard manager. And I
take instructions from him. And

I'm learning about pruning and
I'm learning about everything

else that about, you know,
growing vines and what are those

that are actually suitable for
our terroir.

Rhys Waters: In the first
episode, we learned that just as

the family took ownership and
assumed responsibility of the

winery, fate through them and
the entire planet, a curveball.

Unknown: We need you to continue
to stay home, we need you to

continue to do everything we can
to flatten the curve. Nova

Scotia is not doing well, when
it comes to staying away from

our parks and beaches. We don't
need online graphs to tell us

what we need to do. We need to
stay the blazes home.

Rhys Waters: So as the world
shut down, the winery became

part of a tourism industry that
could no longer operate. What

would they do? Despite a
thorough plan, this was new.

Unknown: Well, two months after
we bought it was like, oh, man,

you know, one of my strengths so
that I brought to the table,

it's just because of my past
experience as the Chief

Administrative Officer for
Windsor, is risk management. So

we went through all of the
risks, you know, we had like

five major risks. And I know,
okay, these are the risks in

this industry. You know, how do
we mitigate all of these risks?

And so we went through the risk
mitigation and said, Okay, well,

where was that? When we did,
what we didn't plan on was risk

management for a pandemic. Was
like, Oops. However, we're not

the only ones in the world that
had to find a way to manage the

pandemic.

Rhys Waters: For Kyle, they
needed a clear vision if they

wanted to navigate this new
world,

Unknown: pandemic yet, and
everyone was told to stay home,

you had to stop before you
panicked and you stopped and you

look at what are you doing here?
What are you trying to do? What

is our business trying to do?
Yes, we're trying to have great

experiences. Yes, we're trying
to host weddings. And yes, we're

trying to have great restaurant
data. But we're trying to sell

wine. Right? Once you if you
lose sight of what we're trying

to do, which is sell wine, then
you're in the wrong business. So

I said, Okay, well, how do we
sell wine, or we can sell it

online.

Rhys Waters: And Shawn's
previous experience was about to

prove invaluable.

Shawn: I was a business advisor
in my past life, as well. I had

an iced tea company. And so as a
business advisor, I helped a lot

of clients build their business
from the ground up. And part of

that was really learning Shopify
in web applications, that sort

of thing. So, so saw the
opportunity we're like, let's

pivot to online and try and get
this delivery thing going. So

that was a quick flip for us. We
were able to get that going

March 19, I think and it was
like the 17th that everything

started to go on lockdown and 93
like, will deliver to your door

with anything over a $50 order

Rhys Waters: as a team, they
realized they could cover local

deliveries across different
areas of Nova Scotia. You know,

Unknown: I said I would do the
HRM my brother does around the

Avondale area, you know, which
is expensive, like you know, HRM

sounds big and it is big. But at
least you can bang out a bunch

of houses quickly. And where
these you might have 1520

minutes in between deliveries,
and my parents were going to do

the Annapolis Valley. So that's
how we did it. We just said

let's let's go at it go hard go
Go fast.

Shawn: It was it was actually
really awesome. It was as soon

as we said that we could do it,
then people were like, well,

everyone was in panic, no one
wanted to leave the house.

Right? It was that time that no
one wanted to go outside and

risk it and be around people. We
didn't know what we didn't know,

what we knew was safe as our
home. And so not having to leave

your door and having the wine
delivered to your door, that

sort of thing. Contactless
delivery was a safe bet and a

way to enjoy your time at home.

Unknown: We went from just the
business we were in to

completely online. And yeah,
that just took off.

Thankfully, people continue to
indulge in alcohol throughout

the throughout the pandemic, and
when they were locked at home.

And at the same time, it's great
for us that people were still

enjoying it and supporting local
and gave us a chance for people

that wouldn't necessarily come
out to the winery not for any

other reason, then that's 40
minutes away, and I got to drive

home. Now that we're trying our
product where they weren't

trying it before. And all of a
sudden, they they liked the

wine. So now this summer, and
last summer, they started to

come out to the winery, oh, now
I want to go and see this place.

And then we're getting the
whole, you know, the whole

experience and helping it grow
our stuff like our sky club

membership and things like that.
Because people now say, you

know, I've seen the people who
own it, I've seen the people who

operate it. I've tasted the wine
and seen seen who makes it. And,

you know, chances are they're
one that they would order at a

restaurant or maybe off the off
the shelf at a liquor store. But

certainly they continue to order
from us online, which is great.

So that was probably if there
was a blessing of the pandemic.

I guess that was it. Because in
a regular business plan model I

don't think we would have said
hey, how are we gonna start

delivering wine, it just
wouldn't have been something

that you think about

Rhys Waters: so with a strong
customer base and wine that

needed delivering, as locked
down eased, Louis in a villa

managed to turn doorstep
deliveries into leisurely road

trips.

Unknown: With my wife and I,
because we retired, we've become

the couriers for the you know,
for our team. So the the places

like the South Shore. We go once
a week, and we take deliveries

out there doesn't matter if it's
just a handful. But we make an

event of it because we're both
retired so we'll stop and have

lunch that way so stay overnight
in a b&b and make a little

holiday of it. So it's been fun.

Rhys Waters: So with onsite
events canceled and customers

ordering online, the family
focused on learning as much as

possible about the operations
and most importantly the wine

for Jamie it was a silver
lining.

Unknown: So wait let us really
sink our teeth into it and learn

and do all the things before we
had to be customer facing. And

it just gave us more time to
plan and just the behind the

scenes stuff in terms of sales
and and what we were going to

carry in the winery some small
renovations to the winery, those

sorts of things.

Rhys Waters: For Shawn and his
partner Mallory, the winery in

lockdown changed the course of
their lives.

Shawn: It was since there was so
much to take on. It actually

worked in our favor because
because we had more time to take

it on and it was a slower
integration into what is

reality.

Unknown: We had planned to still
live in Halifax and spend part

of our time in Avondale. But
then COVID started so we were

like why would we rent a
apartment in downtown Halifax

when we can just go live on the
vineyard. So we moved out to the

vineyard it was like a
completely empty apartment and

we just slowly made it a home
over the pandemic and we decided

we fell in love with Avondale.
It's such an amazing community

of people that we never ever
want to leave.

Rhys Waters: So now living in
the winery and surrounded by the

new venture, it was time to take
things to the next level.

Shawn: They didn't know anything
about wine before before we got

into this venture or just
before. So I've been doing a

sommelier course through caps
Canadian Association of

Professional sommelier has
learned a lot about so many

different aspects whether it's
wine, winemaking, everything and

then even the restaurant and
retail side of things. So it's

been a not even two years but a
lot of growth in that last

little bit for sure.

Rhys Waters: Two years later,
Shawn and Mallory and multiple

awesome experts,

Unknown: we've gone from to zero
to 100. When it comes to wine

knowledge, yeah, we basically
know all the wine regions in the

world and what they're kind of
about on a on a, on a general

level, there's so much more to
learn. We it's like our hobby

now to pair wine with food to
try new wines we've never heard

of, when we go to a restaurant,
and we order wine. We know

whether if we ordered this same
glass of wine, we can tell

whether that glass, our glasses
of wine are from the same bottle

or not. So if we if we both
order a cab salve, and we taste

both, we can tell if, if one of
them's from a bottle that's been

open a few days or if one's
freshly cracked a bottle. So

we've learned so much.

Rhys Waters: To us later, there
is a deep bond between all of

the family and the wines they
produce. In the old church

building. Carl talks about each
variety passionately.

Unknown: So we've got a variety
of whites, Rosae, red, of

course, sparkling wine. And then
we also have some canned wines.

So how we do our displays, we
have all our whites together,

and we usually go starting on
the left side with our driest

wines and kind of work our way
to our sweetest wines on the

right side. We do that so it's
easy to explain to the customer

because you know, we've got 30
different wines here. Some

people come in and say I like
white and it's like well now

here's your spectrum of white.
Some people come in and say I

like dry and we say okay, well
if you like dry, you're gonna

want to start on the left side
of any of our cabinets. So we've

got our roses on one are reds on
another are whites on the third.

And then we kind of just kind of
helps to have the experience of

saying well if I like dry
whites, I might want to try

these two or three. Okay, well,
let's get you a flight of wine

so you can actually dry them.
And then in here, what we have

is our title Bay, which is
obviously our Nova Scotia

appellation wine. It's one of
our more popular wines in Nova

Scotia. There's 15 wineries that
make it you have to be a member

of wine growers, Nova Scotia,
you have to pass an independent

tasting panel a blind tasting
panel every year to make a title

Bay. It's a blended white wine,
and it's really helped put Nova

Scotia wine on the map. From
there you get the stem out and

see what other stuff you can
make. But our title Bay in 2020

Vintage is a blend of five
different grapes Lakhiani blah

Frontenac blanc Vidal, Osceola,
Muscat and Geisenheim. I will go

with the rosae next week. Right
now we've currently got four

different rosae. We've got a
Leon Molo, which is a dry Rosae

and it works its way over to our
sweet Rosie. In between. We also

have lady slipper, which is one
of our more popular products. So

our reds. Nova Scotia is not
known for its red wine. It's

certainly known it's a cold
climate. So it's it's known much

more for white wine, sparkling
wines. And we've been able to,

you know, you start to see a
little bit more rosy because

you've got the red grapes. It's
like well, let's not make too

much red wine. We're not there
yet. But we're getting there.

And our winemaker Ben swettenham
has done a fabulous job with our

red wines. We try not to have
too many. There's numerous

different vintages here that
you'll see from 2010, 2012,

2015, 16, 17, right down to
2019. So different different red

wines, different grapes.
Different these are some of them

are blends. Some of them are
single grape, single grape

varietals. Some are reserve
wines, a reserve would mean it's

usually aged in a barrel.
Whereas some are reds that are

pressed every year and made
every year. Ferry Road is one of

our more popular red wines. It's
a little bit more on the sweeter

side versus the dry side.
Something like a new port is is

like a port. If you've had a
port style wine. This is it. We

just aren't allowed to call it
porque because we're not in

Portugal. So we call it Newport
reserve because we are in

Newport landing. So we get away
with it that way. My mom can

also tell you a great story
about from her childhood. She

grew up in India, and pork was
something that you know, even

the kids were allowed to have a
little sip of.

Or I love port. So I grew up in
Goa, which was a Portuguese

colony in India. And even as a
little child, maybe four years

old as far as I can remember. We
would have after Sunday dinner,

the whole family would get mum
and dad of course had a

reasonable sip. We were given a
tiny little sip. And from that

age, I enjoyed it now I've been
to Portugal many times and my

drink over there is poured wine
again. I come in here and I see

we have Newport and after
tasting it. It is so close to

the port wine that I've tasted
in Portugal. So yeah, it brings

back memories. I think there are
a lot of Europeans who enjoy

Puerto as well, because of the
Portuguese influence. To me,

Paul is like going back to my
favorite memories. It's one of

those drinks that you know,
after a meal you want to, with

the snow falling and you're
looking out, you've got a

blanket over you the fireplace
on and you're sipping pote

nothing better than that feeling
to warm the body up through the

winter.

Rhys Waters: The families grow
in personal connection with the

wine has really helped Avondale
build its sky club and exclusive

small batch products.

Unknown: So something like our
Lady slippers example is

something that we would make
what I would call mass

production on which will maybe,
you know, 5000 to 10,000 bottles

a year, because we're going to
sell some we're going to have

some at liquor stores, we're
gonna have some at restaurants

and so on was something like a
small lot, it is sort of what it

sounds like it's there's less
made, so it's usually less than

1000 bottles. And so they'll go
to things like our sky club

membership, which is our wine
club here at Avondale sky. And

then from there, it's usually
stuff that we're going to sell

ourselves, meaning it's not
going to probably be on

restaurant menus elsewhere, it's
not going to be at liquor

stores, it's not going to be a
private stores or anything like

that, it's only going to be
available at the winery. And it

gives us that ability to say
this is something special. So

we'd like to save it for our
valued members of our sky club.

And then any other person who
decides to visit us either

online or here in person. I
think people really enjoy that.

I think people, you know, I
don't know, if it's just the

wine culture, or people in
general say, you know, what, if

I'm going to be a member of a
club, I want what am I getting

that other people aren't
getting? What's Why do I want to

be a member of anything? If I
don't get a benefit? And the

benefit to them is Yeah, you get
you get wines that we don't even

release to the rest of the
public. You know, we'll do some

lots that are like 200 bottles
that are so low, they never even

hit the shelves, it's they go to
our membership. And and that I

think is that exclusive benefit
that they feel, I mean, yeah,

they save 10% on any purchases
that they make as well, like

there is some, some little
benefits like that. But you

know, the way they're treated
when they're here, you know,

complimentary desserts,
complimentary wine tastings,

anytime, they'd like that those
types of perks, really make them

feel special like and they like
to bring guests with them which

which, which for us is great.
It's like, hey, we have one sky

Club member, but they brought
eight friends with them today,

right.

Rhys Waters: And with wine now
in the blood of the Cuttino

family, they've begun to
innovate. Jamie knew the bottle

designs needed further
development.

Unknown: That was a big thing
for us the labels. The old

labels were they were dated. But
they were also it was very hard

to distinguish between bottles,
because all of the Reds had the

exact same label. And all of the
whites had the exact same label.

So not one particular wine was
going to pop. And so we just

wanted to make it a little bit
younger, make it a little

fresher and make make them pop.
So we worked with maritime

labels with Kyle, and he was
fantastic, we would kind of you

know, throw around ideas, give
them a rough idea of what we

wanted. And we would go from
there. So the first couple, we

just use some stock images. And
then we went to a friend of

Sean, she is an artist. And so
she painted some watercolors for

us again, we would just give her
a rough idea of what we were

looking for,

you know all the white wines at
the same all the red wines at

the same and then nothing was
distinguishing. And when you can

see how much wine we have, for
people to remember what they

had, we had to have some
distinguishing factor. So you

can see here with like our title
Bay, we've got that wave sort of

like a tidal wave and a play on
that. So people might remember

our title day over another as
well. You'll see over on the

reds, we have like the tractor
for Ferry Road. We've got these

clouds for bliss, a beautiful
scenery for TennyCape, things

like that. The other piece that
we wanted to do was on the back

of the labels make it as user
friendly as possible because

some people don't drink wine on
the regular throughout the

liquor store or they're, you
know, they need to pick

something quick. This on the
back will tell you about the

variety what grapes are in
there. It'll give you the

tasting notes and sort of what
sort of tastes your palate might

pick up. Everyone's different.
And then what appears well with

so again, if you're going to a
friend's house for dinner, okay,

they're having salmon. Well what
goes with salmon with our

Avondale sky wines going
forward. Anytime you turn the

bottle around, you'll see what
appears best with and hopefully

that helps people make a
decision for their dinner or

maybe just their deck wine for
the day.

And then for small lots because
they're small lot. We wanted

them to feel just special.
There's not a ton of them

produced. So for those labels,
we went with that number of

bottles and so someone can grab
the bottle of wine and say oh my

goodness, I have you know number
99 of 250 tea or whatever it may

be. So yeah, it was great. It's
really fun. We really I think we

all really enjoy that aspect and
we're working on some new labels

now.

Rhys Waters: And those changes
included putting their stamp on

a new wine with hip hop inspired
brand in

Unknown: the notorious R Ed.
That's our newest red wine.

Shawn: I just bought a no spin a
couple of 1000 Just my brother

and I have always he's nine
years older than I am. So I am

definitely influenced by like
Bad Boy Records and like Biggie

Diddy mace. Like you take some
way back and I was always I

guess a little bit older than I
was when it came to my the

music. So yeah, we we realized
our winemaker liked rap, which

is great too. And we thought
notorious already would be a fun

sort of a in the wine industry
in general can be fairly, can be

fairly dry and in traditional in
a lot of ways. And so we did it

even even the label is a little
different from our general or

general listing other labels,
every winery I think is getting

a little bit more and more fun
and having some more fun with

it. But but sometimes it's not
so easy because people associate

like traditionalism with the
with high class wine. And if you

have too much fun, then maybe
you're not serious enough with

your winemaking. So you have to
It's a delicate balance a fine

line where you can have some fun
still make a great product and

people can enjoy both the
branding along with the wine and

have confidence in what you're
making. So

Rhys Waters: another innovation
for the product lineup was

adapting to new ways customers
like to consume their wine

Unknown: canned wine is it's
probably a new trend, lots of

the what's called the RTD the
ready to drink category, which I

always find funny because
everything's ready to drink

anyway, but but the way they
talked about it's like the mixed

drinks, right? So more people
were buying seltzers and that

sort of thing in a can. So a few
years ago Ken wine started to

come on to the market. And when
we bought this business two

years ago, there was no cans
that done by Avondale sky. So we

said let's try it. And so we
started with this one here,

which is our summer sizzler
fizzy Rosae. We just did a small

lot of it in 2020, just to try
it out and see how it went. It's

sold very quickly. And it was
quite successful. So we said

okay, next year, let's add a
couple more brands to that. And

that's when we added see here
Nirvana, which is one that we

also sell on the bottle and our
bliss, bubbly and bliss is also

one of our more popular ones buy
the bottle. So we thought, let's

leverage the fact that these are
already wines that we have in

the bottle, people who know what
they're getting when they buy

it. Whereas the summer sizzler
was a brand new brand

altogether. And so this way,
people who like it in the

bottle, chances are you're going
to like it in the can and it

serves the purpose of saying
it's convenient, I'm not going

to drink a whole bottle today
I'm going to so and so's house,

I'm just going to take a can.
The other part of it is, it's a

good entry level to say hey, try
this, you might like it. And if

you like it, please buy it buy
the bottle. Again, that again,

they become more readily
available in stores,

restaurants, as well as starting
to like carrying cans more than

bottles because single serve,
they don't have to open a whole

bottle and maybe have wastage of
a particular wine. So when they

can buy it in a smaller lot and
make their margin just on on one

can versus a whole bottle.

Shawn: Seeing the growth, I
think we've done a lot of

changes. And it's that to me has
been super rewarding. So whether

it's from the painting outside
to the shells that I built from

scratch for retail, to getting
the mural done on about the

story of the winery. I think
that has been just super

rewarding. Really, that's what
I've always loved about business

is that autonomy. You set your
mind and you get to make those

decisions and then you go and
execute and a lot to me it's

just get put a price on that.

Rhys Waters: The risk and effort
of innovation has all been worth

it for the family, as the wine
has seen some serious

recognition.

Unknown: This is our sparkling
Lakha de from 2015. And so this

year and 2021 at one the
Lieutenant Governor's Award for

Excellence in Nova Scotia wines.
So it was, you know, 39 wines

were submitted from 15 different
wineries in Nova Scotia. And

this was one of four winners and
those those are about the same

ratios you're gonna see every
year when when these awards come

up. So this was the fifth win
for Avondale sky, and I can show

you some of the other awards
towards this way. We've got four

different awards. In 2019. We
won the left tenant Governor's

Award for Excellence in Nova
Scotia wines which that's the

same name for all of them for
our 2011 blanc de noir err,

which is a reserve so that's
like a Pinot Noir red grape that

makes a white wine. So that
again was a sparkling in 2018

and 2018 and in 2014 we went for
an ice wine, late harvest ice

wine called Mark talk, again
named cook for the ski hill

that's nearby here. And in 2015,
we won for our title Bay, so the

aforementioned title Bay which
is the Nova Scotian Appalachian

wine that was in 2016 that we
won that award so it's nice to

you know, it seems like we're
getting them every two years or

so and we'd like to continue to
see that trend happening going

forward.

Rhys Waters: In the next
episode, we learn about the wind

picking community and discover
how nature can cause serious

problems for Nova Scotia is
winegrowers.

Unknown: Every year is a
challenge, but you have no idea

what that challenge is going to
be when the year starts. Every

year there's a completely
different weather phenomenon.

Rhys Waters: If you'd like to
know more about Avondale sky

winery, visit Avondale sky.com
or search Avondale sky on social

media platforms.

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