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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. If you love wine, business and the thrill of new ventures. Then sit back and enjoy Avondale Sky Winery.
https://avondalesky.com/
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/
Rhys Waters: Welcome to Avondale
sky winery. 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. In this
episode, we'll learn about where
it all began, from the dream of
saving the community icon to the
Karatedo family taking the
reins.
Our story begins one sunny June
afternoon in 2019 when Louis
casino was relaxing at home with
his wife, Avila
Unknown: was recently retired,
and I got a call from Carl. Carl
said dad, he said his mom there
and yeah, I'm good. Can you put
us on speakerphone? So I did
want to discuss a business
venture. So what is it? I can't
tell you?
Yeah, imagine asking your
parents to sign a nondisclosure
agreement. Friend of mine is a
business broker. So I'm on his
mailing list, as you do is
friends do. They're all in each
other's mailing lists. And I
always see everything that he
has for sale, whether it's fish
and chip trucks or laundromats
or whatever. And one thing he
said winery and that caught my
attention. I thought that's
interesting.
Long story short, I was I asked
him what it was and he said it
was a winery and I couldn't
believe and as crazy. None of us
know anything about winemaking.
Yeah, but that this is what
you've always wanted. No, I
wanted a hobby farm. No, not the
winery. Six chickens and
probably, you know, a little
garden or something. So keeps me
active and get me up in the
morning.
They were probably the toughest
sales pitch I probably have read
in my life to pitch to my
brother, yeah okay, you're gonna
move from Halifax, to Newport
landing. Would that work for
you? You know? And to my wife,
of course who everything's a
sales pitch to your wife, right?
Yeah, so we were laying in bed
one night, it's like 10 o'clock
at night. I'm ready to go to
bed. He has his laptop. He's
going through emails. And he
says, Jame there's a winery for
sale. Like, wouldn't that be
amazing? And I was kind of like,
okay, sure. Yeah. And he was
like, no, but like, if we bought
it, and I was like, You're
crazy. I'm going to sleep. So I
literally rolled over and when
sleep
did I didn't have all the
answers of how it was going to
work. I had no vision of I think
good work. Least I know one
thing for sure. It'll keep me
and my family here in Nova
Scotia for a number of years.
And you know, with other careers
you don't know where it might
take you
Rhys Waters: And Carl wasn't the
only family member eager for a
joint venture. His younger
brother Shawn was already
flexing his entrepreneurial
muscles.
Shawn: I think I've always
wanted to be an entrepreneur and
do entrepreneurship. And I had
started something before a
little ice company. This is just
a much bigger venture. But I
really didn't know much about
why I thought Pinot Grigio was a
red wine. I felt like I it was
mostly the business side of
things.
Rhys Waters: For a moment, the
law. It was an exciting
opportunity,
Unknown: working with the family
on a venture that is a growing
industry in Nova Scotia. We all
like wine, beer, and an
opportunity to grow even more.
Rhys Waters: But it was risky.
And Carl still had some
convincing to do
Unknown: just thought he was
just kind of throwing it out
there, whatever. So the next
morning, I wake up, I pick up my
phone, and there is a string of
100 messages back and forth. He
had created this chat with his
parents and his brother,
introducing this idea of buying
winery and Dinah was like, Oh,
he was actually kind of serious
about this.
We went through the due
diligence period, and the
condition I took it on was I've
been behind the desk for 45
years of my life. 30 years with
the Halifax Regional
Municipality and 15 years with
the town of Windsor as the chief
administrative officer. I didn't
want to be behind the desk and
CRO promised that he looks after
the business end of things. All
I wanted to do was manage the
back end you know, the vineyard
and being outside but that's how
we got into this, this venture.
Rhys Waters: And while right now
is booting time for the wine
industry in Nova Scotia Avondale
sky is one of the oldest
vineyards in the province. So to
tell you the rest of the story,
we need to go back in time to
Unknown: The village of Walton
hasn't seen this kind of
excitement in God only knows how
long. What do you guys think of
all of this? Oh, it's a miracle
to me.
I think it's short, I'm sure a
miracle.
Rhys Waters: The wineries
original founders Stewart and
Lorraine believed strongly in
sustainability. Moving from the
city they wanted to find and
repurpose old buildings rather
than build new. That's how an
old barn from the st. Quad
riverbanks first came deliver
the winery for the miracle. The
witnesses he heard from the old
CBC report were talking about
was their most ambitious
repurposing project yet. One day
they stumbled across an old
building in nearby Walton, and
they were inspired. Mama Vila
has taken on the role of Chief
Historian.
Unknown: The previous owners
were looking for a place to
display their wine. So this was
an old Anglican church, St.
Matthew's Anglican church built
in 1837. It was deconsecrated in
2008 2009. And at that point in
time, it was going to be
destroyed. They saw this church
fell in love with it, bought it
for all of the dollar 67 Because
in those days in 1837, the
community built the church. So
there was hardly any money that
the Archdiocese had to pay for
it. They had to move it from
where they were located. They
couldn't move it by road because
of the high ceiling and low
power lines. They didn't want to
move it in pieces and put it
together. So they floated down
the river all in one piece. 40
tons of it. And
with cameras and makeshift
chairs, the moving of this old
church was a sight not to be
missed.
I ever say there's many curves
are you nervous.
They put it on a flatbed flatbed
moved on to a barge and floated
down it took 24 hours.
Have you ever transported a
church down the river never
never. And the whole town is
shown
because Avon River and the minus
basin is part of the Bay of
Fundy which has the highest
tides in the world. They had to
time it so that it would leave
at the best high tides possible.
Even with that it stopped
enhance boat to allow another
second set of high tides to come
and then brought it over here.
So with the tide and weather on
their side, they pull away to
applause no less. Every one
happy that their little church
that stood in their village
since 1844 will be converted
after its water journey to a
place that makes wine. And this
is one memory they'll treasure
all in one piece, no damage done
to the beautiful stained glass
windows, or the structure or the
flooring or anything like that.
Rhys Waters: Today, the stunning
church sits pride of place in
the community of Newport Landon,
in his new lease of life, it's
the focal point and symbol of
the winery.
Unknown: Come on in. You can see
it's still got a lot of history.
And we've tried to modernize it
a little bit with some of the
merchandise and obviously the
wine and different displays. But
it's got a lot of character. We
have a lot of people that come
here that you know their parents
were married in this church or
they were baptized in this
church. And they happen to like
wine too. So it works out well
for us and they like to come in
and see it. So this is it's it's
got a nice blend of I guess the
past and the future.
People have come in here from
other parts of the country. And
I've heard them say wow, wow. Oh
my oh my and I think to myself,
what's the OH MY and they say
this is just absolutely
gorgeous.
Rhys Waters: As a visitor to
Avon, they'll scape. The
original and ornate stained
glass windows are an
unforgettable feature.
Unknown: I have been to Florence
where I've seen some stained
glass windows at the Basilica,
across from the dome. And some
of them look as beautiful as
that. In the summer when the sun
beams are coming through. You
can actually see on the
countertop on the counter, the
sun beams shining, red, yellow
and greet.
We'll head over this way and we
have a mural here that was spray
painted by again a local artist
local meaning from Halifax A
friend of mine that I grew up
with, and he, he does a nice
depiction of the story of how
this church came. It's just
sometimes, you know, it helps a
picture says 1000 words. So it
allows us to kind of tell it.
And we also have an actual
picture of it here, not far to
kind of show people the actual
but and then just through here,
we've got a window that kind of
looks down into what I would
call the actual winery where the
where, where the money is, has
to be made. Because if you don't
have the wine to sell, you don't
really have much of a business.
So, so yeah, these these are
just some of the tanks, there's
more tanks on the left hand
side. But this is just a nice
way when we're giving a tour. to
customers that come here, we
don't always have the ability to
take them right down into the
bowels of the winery. So this is
a way that they can just see it,
they can get a bit of the
history of the church here. They
can see down below and see the
number of different tanks we
have. You can see my dad down
there walking through you can
see Maria given us away.
Rhys Waters: For Louis and Vela
life has changed a lot since he
first arrived in Canada.
Unknown: By got here in 1972, I
came as a refugee from Uganda.
This was EDM ins, idiom in his
reign of terror. So we arrived
in Montreal in October, it will
be 50 years, this coming
October. It was a military
barracks. And we actually had a
choice of where we should be
going to you know which province
would best be best suited for
our family. So after doing some
preliminary looks here, and then
we looked at where everybody was
standing, everybody wanted to go
to Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver.
And so those provinces they had,
they had booths set up from
British Columbia, all the way to
the Atlantic provinces. And we
saw nobody was going to the
Atlantic provinces. So I said to
my mom, I said, that's where
we're going, we're going over
there.
Rhys Waters: And for Avila, the
spirit of adventure has always
been her driving force.
Unknown: I finished high school
at 14, and went on to university
four year degree, I knew that
there was something my world was
too small over there, and I
wanted to expand. Anyway, when I
did come to Canada, I came with
my mom and younger brother. And
I came with $3 in my pocket. And
I always had the savings goal, I
have no idea why. So I went off
to Toronto, I was still a
teenager went up to Toronto, on
my own got a job with a
financial institution, which is
where I wanted to be, and
absolutely loved that field.
I started working in the very
first week as, as a grocery
store as a 19 year old at all my
brothers who were younger than
me and they had to go to high
school. So all of a sudden, it
was like, I had to do something
to to get my family, you know,
my mother didn't have too many
skills. So she had to take a job
as a dishwasher. So between
herself and myself, you know, we
had to find a way to make things
work. We were able to, you know,
to sort of live there, put my
brothers through high school and
save some to put myself through
university a few years later.
Rhys Waters: It's very easy to
see why Carl and Shawn are
deeply inspired by their parents
Shawn: To know what they've gone
through the ups and downs in to
start from the bottom down here
and then move their way up to
where where we as a family are
able to afford a winery and then
build that legacy for the
Latinos.
Unknown: From the background
that my parents brought. Hard
work was obviously instilled in
you know, my brother and I, you
know, we grew up watching, you
know, our parents work hard. And
you just, I guess you're that's
how you brought up. That's the
nurture part of your life. And I
know if you ask them, they'll
probably tell you, they never
thought they'd be a business
owner. And I could probably
understand that. But they've
always worked as hard to be
business owners.
Rhys Waters: Avondale Sky has
always been more than just a
business, it had a staff of
local people employed by the old
owners. So when the Cortino
family took over, they knew
there will be a transition.
Well,
Unknown: it's interesting,
because, you know, I know it
concerned, some of our staff
when they saw five of us coming
in as Co-owners, and it was
like, Okay, this is going to be
a problem. You know, somebody's
going to be they're going to be
trampling over each other. We're
going to get five different
people telling us to do five
different things.
Rhys Waters: In a small
community. Businesses like this
provide more than just a job,
team man was like vineyard crew.
Jamie have a personal history
that goes way back.
Unknown: Yeah, well, my family
roots can probably be traced
right back to the shipbuilding
days back here in this
particular area. This vineyard
was here when I was a kid. But I
grew up through here playing in
the woods and everything all
through here. If you look at
some of the very old maps and
everything like the the land
that the vineyard is now sitting
on used to hold quite a few
families, there's some old roads
that go back through the woods
and then was 11 or 12,
homesteads back through the
woods directly behind the
vineyard. And through the
vineyard, there were three or
four other ones. Some of the
roads that we use to go from
section to section actually used
to be old physical roads that
the shipbuilding, people used to
use daily. So there's old wells
and foundations and everything
all over the place, after the
shipbuilding days kind of died
down population dropped off. And
now you just got a bunch of
crazy rednecks that love it out
here.
Rhys Waters: So for the venture
to thrive, the family knew they
needed some defined roles and
responsibilities.
Unknown: We have all got our own
area of discipline, you know,
like I, I'm, if it's anything to
do with the viticulture, and
it's me,
My Father Louis Cuttino So
Louis, my dad's, you know, a
amazing career as sort of a
bureaucrat in different areas of
municipal government in Nova
Scotia. And but one thing he was
always a passion for him was he
had a green thumb. So it was
like dad, you know, make this
place look pretty whatever that
takes. So and, and so you know,
whether it's all the gardens,
which look amazing, and
immaculate, he does all the
property management in general,
he'll do everything from mowing
the grass here. And then what he
really has taken an enjoyment
too, is working in the vineyard.
So he's taken a lot of a lot of
time and spent a lot of time
with the guys and girls in the
vineyard learning about the
grapes. For Dad, he also does
our vineyard tours. So, you
know, a lot of times wineries
will have you know, of course, a
lot of staffs, they want to give
you a tour, and it's they're
great. But people have really
liked the fact that you have an
owner taking you out to see his
vineyard and talking to you
about the grapes and fielding
questions and dad loves it. And
he's good at it.
It's anything to do with
business development and, and
hold the stuff it's curl.
I am the president fancy name
and Operations Manager. What
that really entails is
overseeing all of our
operations, both retail
wholesale, working with our
winemaker working with our
vineyard manager to know what
grapes are we growing? What wine
are we making? Who's going to
buy it? Where are we going to
sell it.
So anything to do with retail
management and the restaurant
and Shawn and the you know, the
wine wine tasting somebody
aside,
my wife Jamie, she is our social
media, manager consultants,
everyone want to call it she
does all of our correspondents
with any customer inquiries, we
kind of carved that role,
because we knew we had the four
kids at home. And it wouldn't be
possible for us to both be on
site. But yet we both play
critical roles in the business
running every day. Last
certainly not least is my mom,
Vila contino. So she does
everything behind the scenes and
in front of the scenes. So she's
payroll, bookkeeping, benefits,
health and safety, all those
things that businesses need to
have. And then she also you
know, by choice works in our
retail store and works are our
cash, right. So she's the sort
of the last person you see and
sometimes the greeter when you
come in, but she's definitely
the last person you see before
you leave to help leave that
lasting impression. And part of
what the way we built our model,
because there is five of us is
to leverage the fact that
there's five of us. So we have a
great team of employees and
staff both in the vineyard and
winery and in the kitchen. But
for us, it's we want to be the
first touch point and only like
an owner will be your first
touch point. If you reach out on
social media, you'll get Jamie
if you call the winery you'll
get Vela or Shawn, you know, if
you reaching out for private
events, if you're reaching out
from a restaurant or wholesale,
you're going to get me if you're
in the vineyard, trying to get
my dad, you know, so we cover
our butts in that sense that
chances are you're going to meet
one owner of Avondale sky when
you come here. Don't know which
one, but you're going to meet
one. And you can tell him that
sometimes you'd meet five, you
know, so that that is what I
think is kind of makes us
different. And that's what
everybody's role is outside of
just trying to be the best we
can be every day
we're all in. But we've all got
special interests. And none of
us seem to have disagreed with
each other. I mean, we do have
our board meetings as a family
and but we exchanged you know
with this frank exchange and
what what we'd like to see
changed so what we can do
better, how we can improve our
service and so on. So it's As a
family we working well together.
We all know clearly what our
goals
we want to make it feel like
you're coming to our house.
They're all How would you how
would you treat a guest coming
to your home. We want them to
feel like that we want our staff
to feel like that and to convey
that same feeling to to our
customers.
Rhys Waters: As the family
settled into their roles and got
to know the team, they found
some surprising shared passions
to bond over
Unknown: a really interesting
story when we first bought this
business we came in and you
know, I myself and my brother,
we've always been hip hop fans
right? We went down and are
winemaker Ben has actual
pictures of rappers on the tank
so he can tell the tanks apart.
So there's biggie. There's Rick
Kim, there's now the tall skinny
one there. That's snoop. So you
know like those are kind of some
of the things because otherwise
it's like what a tank one tank
to take three take a deep, so
it's like they're all named
after rappers. There's little
Kim little Kim's just a small
tag, but she's She's feisty. So
that's just some of the stuff
that we have here, which kind of
keeps it fun. So when we saw
that we're like, Man, this is
like, perfect. This guy. We're
we're kind of the same cloth.
Rhys Waters: Since he took over
Carly's no see and some amazing
upsides beyond the excitement of
a new business.
Unknown: You know, like a lot of
people, you know, my wife talks
to her mom every day. I now I
talked to my parents multiple
times a day. But before it was
like once every week, once every
two weeks, maybe it was a text,
maybe it was an email, maybe it
was a brief phone call. Maybe
they popped in when they were
going to Costco, you know, and
all of a sudden, it's like we're
talking all the time, every hour
about something totally
different, but still may be
relevant to the business. And
then we break and we talk about
family and we talk about the
grandkids and all that stuff,
too.
It's a whole to me lease on
life, just something that I
didn't know very much about
before. But I am so eager to
learn every little bit of the
business.
It went from like, we're not so
sure we want to buy a winery we
want to travel and just enjoy
retirement to you can't keep
them away from there.
Just being working with my with
my sons. You know, it's just
this, I don't know how to
describe it. But when when
you're in a family business, and
you can work together and do
what we do. My biggest fear
about retirement was that I was
gonna get bored. I'm not bored.
I'm really active. In fact, I
trimmed down from about 159
pounds. I'm now at about 142.
And that's you know, I'm feeling
fed strong.
Shawn: Oh, high points. Oh,
there's so many highs, I guess.
Well, we recently won a
Leftenant Governor Award for
Excellence in Nova Scotia wines,
which was super awesome that our
winemaker did that. But really
just 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 because you
put it on your list of things to
do in trying action for the next
year. And we made a lot of those
things come through Come come
come to fruition. And so,
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 that
to me just get put a price on that.
Rhys Waters: In the next
episode, as the Cortino family
begins to blossom, fate throws
them a curveball.
Unknown: Well, two months after
we bought it COVID hits was like
oh man.
Shawn: We've put a lot on our
plate that we might not be able
to. We bit off more than we can
chew.
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.
This has been a Podstarter
production