Wine Fit for a Queen

Talk about a scheduling conflict. Spencer Massie, EMBA’99, faced a major dilemma in February when he had to choose between two major events whose dates coincided. Should the founder and Managing Director of Clos du Soleil winery attend an important meeting with fellow members of the board of the B.C. Wine Institute in Victoria? Or should he hop across the pond for the reopening of Canada House in London by Her Majesty, The Queen?

In either case, wine would figure in the equation. The board dinner would entail schmoozing several MLAs and parliamentary secretaries the same day B.C.’s budget was to be tabled. At the Canada House events, Spencer would be introducing his award-winning wines to a veritable who’s-who of the Canadian expat and British establishments.

Spencer ended up attending the board dinner, taking an overnight flight to London the next day, arriving at Heathrow airport the following morning, just as The Queen was unveiling the plaque some 30 km away. While he missed Her Majesty, a swift change-of- clothes later, Spencer arrived just in time for that afternoon’s VIP reception, where Clos du Soleil’s wines were featured.

“It was an amazing experience,” says Spencer, “though the jet lag was brutal!” In addition to meeting several notables, including Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, former Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and High Commissioner Gordon Campbell, Spencer relished the opportunity to introduce his company’s wines to potential customers at the reception and subsequent black-tie dinner. “We have some work to do in promoting Canadian wines abroad,” Spencer explains. “Canada is often thought of as the land of ice and snow. Even though our ice wines have been around for a while, the reputation of Canadian table wines is just starting to register on the world stage.”

The Queen signs the guest book at the reopening of Canada House.Spencer has been doing his part to help raise the profile of B.C. wines since getting into the wine-production business nearly a decade ago. In addition to his role at the B.C. Wine Institute, he has presented his wines internationally, in both Europe and Asia. It was while preparing to attend London Wine Week 2015 that Spencer heard from his High Commission contacts about the renovation of Canada House and its high profile reopening. Most of the associated events’ wine sponsorships had been snapped up by bigger players, but Spencer was able to nab the spot as the sole B.C. winery sponsor. He also used his February trip to line up a London-based wine agent to help his company break into the lucrative, sophisticated and very large U.K. wine market.

It’s a long way from the winery in the Similkameen Valley hamlet of Keremeos— population 1,300—to the bright lights of London. It’s a path Spencer has been on since his retirement from the Royal Canadian Navy in 2000, one year after completing his Queen’s Executive MBA. He’d long had an entrepreneurial bent, which—perhaps surprisingly—his military experience had helped foster. “There is a lot of planning and structure when you work in naval operations,” Spencer explains. “Once you get into action, though, all hell breaks loose and you’re constantly re-planning on the fly and adjusting to new conditions. Launching a new business turned out not to be that different.”

Spencer had gotten his entrepreneurial feet wet while still in the military, providing corporate expertise for a family-owned catering and restaurant service enterprise in Charlottetown, P.E.I. After retiring from the navy, Spencer embarked on a second career in civilian life, first in hospital administration in Toronto and, later, in strategic consulting in Vancouver.

The allure of starting a new venture eventually proved impossible to resist. It was simply a matter of finding the best fit. Spencer had long been a food and wine aficionado, and, with a group of like-minded friends and former colleagues, he finally took the plunge and launched the winery in 2006.

The first task was to find an expert wine-maker to advise on which property to purchase. Then Ann Sperling, Spencer’s highly experienced wine-maker of choice, became available to take on viniculture operations. It took three years from the winery’s initial planting before its first grapes appeared. Clos du Soleil’s first release came in 2008, when it produced 75 cases each of red and white wines. It’s only within the last year that the winery has started to come into its own, Spencer says. Last year, Clos du Soleil produced 5,000 cases of its artisanal, high quality wines featuring Bordeaux varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

John Whaites, David Brock and Spencer Massie at the Canada House reception in February, 2015.

"Eight years after starting, we’re finally completing the last big piece of the start-up phase,” Spencer says. “We’re just finishing the construction of a 4,000-square-foot facility that is due to open in June and be ready in time for the fall harvest.”

An eight-year start-up phase isn’t exactly the norm for most new ventures, Spencer concedes, but adds that the wine industry is a different beast. “We have a 100-year plan. In this business, when competing against Old-World wineries that have operated for hundreds of years, you have to. I won’t live to see the culmination of the plan, but I’m very passionate about this industry. I expect to still be sweeping out the cellar when I’m in my 90s!”

Spencer divides his time between Keremeos, in B.C.’s southern interior, and his permanent home in Victoria. As part of a succession plan, Michael Clark, BSc’96, joined in 2014 as Winemaker and Co-Managing Director. Spencer intends to remain the company’s roving ambassador, strategy specialist and hands-on floor sweeper, as required.

www.closdusoleil.ca