Laura (00:05)
My name is Laura Luckhurst. I am the owner of Luckhurst Farm and Distillery out here in Southeast Kelowna.

Host (00:11)
and are you originally from Kelowna?

Laura (00:14)
I am not. I'm a bit of a summer local while I was. I was born and raised in Calgary, the age of zero till 15, I lived there. And then my folks moved me to Connecticut with them for my dad's job. yeah, Connecticut. wow. Like, Gilmore Girls and, I don't know, friends. And well, we were an hour away from New York City.

Host (00:28)
America?

So

at 15 year what age, grade nine.

Laura (00:38)
grade

nine. I just finished grade nine. I was going into grade 10.

Host (00:42)
And what was that like?

Laura (00:44)
humbling to say the least.

Host (00:46)
You lose,

yeah, because you're leaving your friend group.

Laura (00:48)
Well, I'd been in the same school. I grew up with the same had all done the first 10 years of school together. not really realizing that that was such a big impact. You're kind of yanked from that social group and put into one that was already established with another country and another group of people who have been at it for 10 years.

Host (01:12)
Was that a small or a big town you went to?

Laura (01:15)
was a smaller town, a small town Connecticut. That's pretty common. I don't think there's too many big towns out there. Yeah, but New Milford is just north of so I don't know if anybody knows the shape of Connecticut State the proper it's a rectangle sort of and then in the bottom left corner there's another little I was just kind of northeast of the little bottom corner but Connecticut's

crazy small. It takes 90 minutes to go east to west, at least if my dad's driving. Very fast. And then north to south it's like 45 minutes an hour. So it's a really small state. wow. Yeah there's not much and I loved my address there. was Pumpkin Hill Road. I don't know if anybody's...

Host (01:47)
Wait, is he fast or slow?

Pumpkin Hill, that does seem like a Gilmore Girls name too.

Laura (02:04)
While Martha

Stewart lived on Turkey Hill Road, apparently, I never met her, but you It was pretty crazy, felt like a bit of an idiot, though, because when my parents said, oh, we're moving to Connecticut, I kind of looked at them blankly like, cool, where's that? Because when you're 15 and you see like the TV shows and the sitcoms and all these things where they're based in New York City or Connecticut or any of these.

Host (02:10)
⁓ interesting.

Laura (02:31)
You don't really think about where that is on the world map when you're 15 years old. And so pre-internet. Yeah, right. mean, aging myself, but this was in the year this was 2001.

Host (02:37)
internet.

Yeah, or I guess not internet as we know it today. Yeah, it's humble beginning or at least.

Laura (02:47)
Yeah, the internet was there.

early stages, caveman

stages. it's still had MSN messenger and dial up and all that stuff. so staying in touch with people like Facebook was still five years away. And so I lost touch with quite a few buddies, but I was only in Connecticut for a year of high school just because that transition was way too hard. I have diabetes and the whole medical system out there. They measure their blood sugars.

with different formats. It's imperial measurement, not metric. And so, whereas in Canada, my blood sugars are supposed to range from 5.5 to 7.5, whereas in the States, it's supposed to be between 80 and 120. And you try explaining that to a teenager, let alone now. I learned later that there was just a multiplication or division of 18 is the conversion. But nobody told me that when I lived there, so it was a little dumb.

Wow, I know it was crazy. So that year was tough because blood sugars were all over the map because I did not know what I was doing It also happened to be we moved there two weeks before September 11th. ⁓ Yeah, and that was ⁓ wow. It was an intense one. we had lived there for two weeks I was actually having A late start to my morning my first class in school for that particular day was gym

And I woke up that morning with a low blood sugar. And so my mom was very kind and she's like, you're having a low, you're not going to school and going to gym right away. Like we've got to get your blood sugars in order and figure this out. And so, and it just happened to be, I was coming down the stairs and we both turned on the news and we saw what was happening. And the scariest part is that my dad worked in New York state at the time. So we lived in Connecticut and he commuted to New York state every day. And he had the skyline out of his office window, but.

It just, was all scary. It was scary for everyone. And it was just this overwhelming brand new life, brand new school. There was a lot of new in such a short period of time. that year we toughed it out, learned a lot. don't regret it happening now just because I feel like I would have been a very different person with the outcome had we stayed in it was kind of just one of those things that

you become more of a sullen teenager, I think, in grade nine, grade 10, and nothing humbles a teenager more than moving them to a completely different country. So I think it really taught me how to grow up a little bit faster and learn that I like people, even when it's a tough game for a minute. There's always a few really kind people in the crowd.

And that really helps me kind of grow with my socializing. according to a lot of my friends and dance teachers, I came back to Canada very loud. I was apparently a quieter person before I know that, but I came back chatty. yeah, it was just pretty cool to kind of learn that. so I finished off 11 and 12 returning to Calgary. My brother's older than me, so he took me in.

because he's very kind. we were obnoxiously responsible and kind of boring. So it worked that my parents weren't really too worried about us getting into any trouble. yeah, graduated high school and went on from there. And then after high school, I took a year off of school and tried to travel, but life happens and stuff got put on hold. my dad ended up getting a job in Vancouver.

And so I took that opportunity of helping them move back from Connecticut. we ended up in Vancouver in 2006 or seven. I'm trying to remember when that that was a tricky start though. That was a big move and it was the worst economy ever to sell a house and buy a house. Cause it was not a time.

Host (06:37)
and the housing market kind of crashed. Colona, there was a big dip around that time.

Laura (06:41)
I INSTAIN

I'm not sure because for us it was still when houses were somewhat affordable in Vancouver, which I can't even imagine that right now. look at houses like, I look at the house that I live

Host (06:57)
affordable

relative to prices now but back then relative to everything else they were still

Laura (07:03)
Yeah.

No, the fact that we came back and we eventually ended up in a home, like in a house. Oh, I started off in an apartment. Yeah. But then we were able to kind of figure it out and all that stuff. yeah, I went to university. took a one year certificate program with at Kwantlen in Richmond. And it was an art program to kind of test the waters of because I've always been very artsy. So I loved that a lot of that and.

this particular program was really cool because it helped you kind of dip your toes in every section to figure out why you like art, what you love about art, and what career could you take because being artsy doesn't exactly help you with an income. Like I paint. It's like great. You have to die for you can make any money potentially. So true. so with that, it was neat to kind of discover that I really enjoyed psychology.

Color theory was such a cool thing and why people feel certain things when they see the color red or the color green or anything like that. And the way colors complement each other and work together or work against each other. And there's something so beautifully psychological about that that I really wanted to consider going into psychology because it just made sense. But unfortunately, because I graduated high school in Alberta, not in British Columbia, my grades

even though they were considered a relatively decent grade in Alberta to BC standards, they weren't high enough for getting into a university in BC. So I was a little choked about that. I thought about what I was going to do and I actually ended up getting a job with with Boeing of all places, Boeing Canada. And they designed the software for the aircrafts. And I got in there at the coolest time because it just happened to be

where market crash hadn't quite happened yet.

Host (09:00)
your

entry-level job? Like what were you?

Laura (09:03)
I was administration and security. okay. Yeah, and so that was really cool. So I basically my job was to run the front and make sure that the executives got yelled at if they forgot their badges and I also checked people in and I gave them basically a questionnaire and it was kind of up to me to determine whether or not this person was safe to come into the facility because it's very very

secure place like designing software for aircrafts, there's a lot of risk and it's connected with an American company. And of course back then and even now it's still just they're incredibly careful with their secure systems because even once you're through the doors that I've approved, you still have to go through a series of several other security screening checks before you're even making it to the office where you're having a meeting. Wow. And so that's admirable. It's a really cool job. Met a lot of incredible people, learned a lot.

I also primarily learned that even though I got to see and talk to a lot of people, there was something really isolated about it because I was the only one up front. And so there'd be a lot of the time that I'd be sitting there alone. And that wasn't my vibe. It just didn't work with my personality. And I tried to give it some artsy fartsy flair at the front and I hung some of my art from school and

Got into some trouble for some of the art because they're like, that has nothing to do with airplanes. And so I had to change that art out. And so there was always pushing of limits and finding loopholes and things like that. It was just kind of fun. And it wasn't hurting anybody, but some people who got their back up about like, there's too much color on that work of art at the front room. And it's like, okay, I'll turn it back to the grayish wall that's behind it and we'll have a great day. Now you'll leave me alone. It was,

Host (10:49)
My

Laura (10:51)
It was such an experience. was a, I'm not usually one to enjoy pushing people's buttons, but I must admit there were a few times there that it's like, I got way too much joy out of that. was one time I got a talking to from my boss because I decided to put my signature at the bottom of my email as a director of first impressions because

Host (11:17)
That's serious.

Laura (11:18)
Because

you are. was the first person you meet when you walk into this company and you're making or breaking a relationship. And so it was like, hey, I hope I don't screw it up for anybody. And it was really funny. Nobody noticed I had it up for a while until there was a few people in the office that when I'd send out a public announcement to the whole thing, I guess they made noise to my boss. My boss pulled me into her office and she's like.

So I'm not gonna tell you what to do because this is completely harmless, but there's been some complaints about your signature ⁓ and it's up to you, but we feel that you should probably change in my jerky 23 year old way, I was like, it's up to me, I left it up. I didn't change it. And then another month passed and my boss pulls me into her office and she goes,

So yeah, I don't think you read between the lines on our last meeting and she was really cross because I don't know if the higher-ups or somebody talked to her somebody was mad and I this is what I mean when I say I got too much joy out of this because it's like guys seriously like I but I guess they were upset because I was not given the formal title of director and I signed it director first impression. Yeah, I just

Host (12:35)
lot of people working their way up the ladder to get a direct.

Laura (12:39)
Which

of course I didn't give a darn about. was there was no ladder to climb. I was looking for the slide. It was just like weeee.

Host (12:48)
and furthermore, she said it's up to you. She did. that's on her. Yeah.

Laura (12:52)
That's on her. And this was just it. She's like and she of course tried to give me the speech of how like, I thought you were more mature than that. And like, I thought you were more fun than that. And this is the issue I realized with the corporate world is that I find there's too much seriousness in it. And I learned that pretty quickly in this job. But I was there for four years and they did force me to take it down. They actually threatened to me for it, for not taking it down. I'm like, hold on tight.

That was a dumb, I would totally protest that one. I'd like take that one in. But I just, was like, I was so funny. Even now, like it was not one of those things, like it was, I was so stressed about it at the time and now I laugh. I was laughing the entire time. It's like, guys, let's focus on the airplanes, please. look over there and just play no attention to this crazy person at the front desk. And so that was, there was, there was definitely some, some really fun times at that job and, and not all.

psychopathic to make like bring me joy about like angering someone. But there were just a lot of giggles with that. So, but I made some friends and ⁓ no, and I still am very much in touch with a lot of people from that time of my life. One of which is actually very important because my dad also worked at that job. he was an executive there, but he's actually not the reason I got the job. There was a terrible rumor going around the office of this whole like nepo baby or nepotism. Laura got the job because of her dad.

my dad actually tried to get me not hired because he was the one that was worried. He's like, no, it'll give the wrong impression. The optics is that's it's not a good idea. And his boss at the time knew me from a past job that he saw me working and he really enjoyed my outlook on life and just how I manage things. And that's how I got the job. And he told my dad, he's like, f off Blair. I'm hiring she's perfect for the role. And my dad's going to going, OK.

I don't regret that job at all. It was so cool.

Host (14:47)
So where did life take you after those four years?

Laura (14:50)
So what was interesting is that during that time I actually met my husband. I met him during a wine tasting that my parents invited me to go to. And I was 22 years old we'd just gotten relatively established in Vancouver and settling in and they decided like, we're gonna go wine tasting. My grandpa was in town with his girlfriend and like, we wanna go taste some wines. And so they invited me along

Joe was behind the counter pouring because he was a wine rep for his family's winery. It was called Road 13 that's actually the next chapter of my story. never met him, he'd never met me, but I had met his parents months prior at a winemaker's dinner in Oliver, BC because my parents happened to be wine club members of Road 13.

Host (15:19)
Which one? What's this?

Laura (15:40)
And my dad was always talking big like, I know the owners of road 13 and all this. And my dad and Joe's mom used to the airline system. So my mother-in-law used to be a flight attendant for PWA and my dad used to be in cruise scheduling for PWA. And so they knew each other back in the seventies long before Joe's and my birth. so my parents did a tour thing because they're summer locals to a Soyuz.

And there was one day my dad walked into road 13 and saw Pam and he was like, Pam, and she was like, Blair. And so they became wine club members and all this stuff. And so anyways, sorry, that was a real trail there, but leading back to this, my parents like, yeah, we're, we're going to have a wine tasting in Richmond and you know, the owner's son is going to be there. having already met Joe's parents, they were heaps of fun at this dinner that I went to.

And we got to chatting and my mother, my future mother-in-law was plying me with more wine than my tiny 23 year old body could handle. And I asked, of course, I'm chatty when I'm sober, like put a couple of glasses of wine into me. And it's just, it's horrible. So I talked this poor woman's ear off for hours and she's like, I like you. And I didn't realize my father-in-law sneakily took a picture of me and texted Joe.

at this time. This was back in October of 2008 and I'm none the wiser. I'm drinking with my future mother-in-law and he goes like, we just met this girl and she's like super bubbly and really sweet like we think you should take her out on a date and Joe's on the other end of the phone going like yeah okay dad thanks for trying to set me up whatever as I say months pass and I go to this wine tasting with my parents and Joe kind of looks at me and I didn't know what he looked like but he knew

He's like, you look familiar. And then he realized like, ⁓ this is the girl that my parents met. And OK. so, and I'm completely oblivious to half of the world that's going on around me at this time, because I'm just excited. Like, I'm wine tasting with my family. And ⁓ it was so funny because we were chatting. And both my parents and my grandpa and his girlfriend were kind of watching this. they like, so they take their sample of wine and they're like backing away like, let's.

let the kids talk, it's okay. And me being completely oblivious and Joe eventually at the end of it gives me his business card. Cause he said, Hey, I'm actually new to town. He's just moved back from the States where he was living for a while. And I don't really have many friends. ⁓ Give me a call sometime. We can hang out. And of course I'm an idiot and I'm like, I'd love to be your friend. Like idiot. It did.

Host (18:19)
It worked

Laura (18:21)
But it took me a while to actually like, I found his card again. I'm like, ⁓ yeah, this guy wanted to be friends. Like I don't have a lot of pals. Like I'll give him a call. it took us, so he took me on three very nice, very formal dates before finally on the third date where he threw me a birthday party for my 23rd birthday. And he pulls me aside and he's like, okay, ⁓ I really like you and I think you like me, but I don't know that you're picking up on my subtle signals.

So I think we should date exclusively. What are your thoughts on this? And Alison, that is verbatim how he asked me out. And I was like, oh, and I'm so happy looking back on it thinking that we were just friends. I was a little sad because I really liked this guy. Like he's super cool. It's a shame he doesn't want to date. And like the whole time he's like, Laura, like, oh God, I'm jumping through fiery hoops to try to get your attention and take you out on these lovely experiences.

Our first three dates were amazing, but I didn't know there were dates. So we're just hanging out. And I was more myself that way too. Yeah. I think I had known. pressure. Yeah. Had I known there were dates, I would have been just clammed up and just super nervous. But I'm like, oh, this guy just wants to be pals. Yeah, let's go do something stupid. So now it's almost 17 years later. And I cannot believe how fast that time went. That is crazy. And you always hear people say that.

like, ⁓ the time has been so fast. like, yeah, that was like last week.

Host (19:53)
It goes faster as you age too.

Laura (19:55)
was like all that

you write I think we just get used to the times of day like driving from a Soyuz to Penticton like 45 minutes. Oh my

Host (20:03)
It used to feel so long. Don't you remember as a kid recess being so long? It's 15 minutes.

Laura (20:09)
It's

like, do you know how much damage I can do in 15 minutes as a child?

Host (20:13)
I mean, as an adult, you blink and it's been 45.

Laura (20:17)
I know. And like, what do mean I still have my first bite of food on my plate? Yeah, like I think I can maybe do half a load of laundry.

Host (20:21)
I'm like, what can you get done?

Yeah,

exactly. ⁓ man. OK, so you've all this is that's wild. Yeah, the whole time that your parents and the in-laws are like.

Laura (20:35)
They were scheming

Host (20:38)
at each other like, yeah, we see the magic.

Laura (20:41)
They have told us they've done that and it was just like, God, that's manipulative. I mean, thank you now. But at the time it's just like, guys, back off, get out of it. It's like, actually, I kind of appreciate that.

Host (20:54)
So you were living, you both were living in Richmond?

Laura (20:57)
So no, Joe

had moved back to he was in Vancouver proper. OK, and I was living in Richmond and he had just moved back from Seattle where he was living. He had a visa there and so he'd graduated university and he was doing some traveling and he was working a bit down there. But his visa expired and that brought him back to Vancouver he didn't want to move to the Okanagan because there's zero dating scene there. There's very few at the time, though, because it's back in 2007, 2008.

⁓ The only time there's people in their 20s there at the time was very much during the summer. But like year round, you are like, you're just very alone and surrounded by older people. And so he decided to come home and become a wine rep for his parents for the winery.

and he lived in Vancouver and he was doing an awesome job. He was learning a lot about the wine industry. And, ⁓ that was when he met me and we started dating and, ⁓ yeah, it had been about two years. ⁓ it was in 2010. We decided to actually buy a home together and we lived in Ladner for, it was supposed to be a five year plan.

We only ended up being there for about 10 and a half months though, because we got a call from his parents and who said that, hey, the general manager that was here at the winery has decided to move on to bigger, brighter things. And we don't really want to go through training another GM because there was always the plan for Joe and his significant other, maybe to come out to the Okanagan and hopefully take over the family business when my in-laws decided they wanted to take a step back. And I guess...

Mick and Pam had a meeting together and they realized like, instead of waiting like five years for this, why don't we just ask them now? Now, Joe and I weren't married at the time. We were living together, it was fine. And so Mick and Pam called and not to mess up your five-year plan, but do you guys wanna sell your new home and come out here and run the show for us? Cause we're done. And they were totally lying by the way, cause they never left, but we were all hanging out as a family.

But Joe and I decided like, yeah, this is a good time. It was a very organic time for me to leave my job at Boeing because four years was long enough for that position with not having the intention or the drive to climb that ladder. Like like we said before, I've run my course there. I'm good to go. Let's let's do this. And so early 2011, we moved to ⁓ to Oliver, B.C. to learn.

wine world. Now Joe knew a significant more amount of wine than I did, it was... I learn best when I'm thrown into the pack of wolves. I'll never forget my first day at the winery though. My mother-in-law was kind of giving me the rundown on how it works and this is the new executive lounge, this beautiful building they had built the year prior.

somebody comes in and she's like, okay, like you've got the 101, like have fun doing the tasting. And I was standing behind the bar and on my first day, oh yeah, Like, oh yeah, thrown to the wolves. customers come in and they go, oh, we'd really love to try the Chardonnay. And I go like, uh-huh, that's the white one, right? And I see my mother-in-law's face out of the corner of my eye and I swear her jaw hit the floor.

Host (24:12)
On your first day.

Laura (24:33)
Like, you're. No, no, no, no. She was like, no, no, this is fine. Because there was a sincerity behind it. It wasn't like there's an airhead behind the bar. It was more like these people were very aware that it was my first day. OK. It wasn't just one of those like, go, go and like be a a fake Somalia. No, no. They walked in and I go, hi. Welcome to Laura's first day. God. OK, so it wasn't that bad. Yeah. And of course, because it was a family business, there was nothing corporate.

Host (24:34)
Not ready.

⁓

Laura (25:04)
or maliciously expected of me. It wasn't like, yeah, let's initiate her. Let's give her a really bad. Yeah, exactly. so it ended up being a very comical time, got lots of laughs out of these people. ⁓ I wish I could remember, I always say I remember people's faces, but I think I was so scared.

Host (25:19)
You know, they probably loved them.

Laura (25:27)
I don't even remember if I was wearing clothing. was just, you know, those, that nightmare where you're, you're, on stage and you're not wearing anything. I, kind of felt like that. That's my memory anyway.

Host (25:36)
They may probably remember that tasting because it was, I'm just assuming, but it was probably so unique and genuine and intimate.

Laura (25:44)
very

honest, that was like, yeah, it was a hilarious time. no, I just laugh at that time though. And so much has evolved from that and learning so much about the wine industry and wine itself respecting something I never thought I would ever encounter with any sort of knowledge. That one was a big surprise. I've had a lot of curve balls thrown my way in my life, but that one,

was just really cool to kind of have thrown at me and embrace so quickly. and it was a really great thing to learn at that age because I'm still in my early 20s at this point.

Host (26:22)
What

did your responsibilities end up being in your role that you played there?

Laura (26:26)
Well, both

Joe and I started, I actually made a point, I spoke to my mother-in-law and I wanted to start at the very, no, I don't wanna say at the bottom, but I wanted to do every job so that when it came time for me to potentially run the show, I wasn't barking at anyone because like, do that, do this, like clean the toilets, get the bugs off the windowsill. I did that for,

I still, even when I became the boss, ⁓ I still did those tasks because a great leader is leading the front. They're not in behind cracking the whip. And I feel like somebody who knows the job and does it really well is the best teacher for it because how do you teach if you don't know squat about it? Right? Like where's the toilet cleaner? Well, I don't know. I've never cleaned the toilets. That's BS. So...

We restocked the toilet cleaner. showed, we, if the staff was busy and they were having a great time with a customer, we'd be in there. And then mopping those floors. my goodness. If anybody ever goes to that beautiful building still at road 13, those floors were the bane of my existence. They're like, I don't even know what they were made of. They were like a black quartz or something like that. And you could mop them and they'd look pristine for like 40 seconds.

really? And then somebody would walk on them and it didn't matter if these were brand new shoes. You'd see the footprints just because of the dust. It's a very dusty environment there because it's farming and there's a lot of ⁓ you know nitty gritty and there's a lot of indoor outdoor and then our poor winemakers we we had we went through a couple of winemakers through our our tenure at road 13 and I loved them all they were so fun but there was one in particular who never

He would always like, I felt like he stomped his feet when he walked down the hallway. Cause I felt like there was that, like that eruption look, know how if you're snow off of your boots and it's just like, oh, he was here. Oh, but it was, it was such a, oh, it was such a fun time and such a unique time. Cause it was also when the wine industry was really blossoming. Back in 2003, my mother and father-in-law bought,

Road 13, which at the time was called Golden Mile Cellars. There was, think, 43 wineries between Ossoius and Vernon. And I actually don't know how many wineries there are now, but there's over, there has to be more than 300. I can look it up even to find out. Yeah, go for it. it's just, it really did. It became a thing. Well, I mean, Oliver was deemed the wine capital of Canada by the Queen of England.

Host (29:06)
It just exploded.

Laura (29:15)
It's super cool. Not a lot of people know that. I'll never forget when I first drove through Oliver, having been driving through it my entire life, going from Calgary to Soyuz to visit my grandparents. And we finally saw the sign of the wine capital of Canada. We all burst out laughing because of course, growing up there, was peaches, it was apples, it was pears, apricots. And now suddenly it's like wine capital of Canada. Like who fell off their chair? It's such a funny thing.

Okay, so I've just looked it up on my phone and it says according to the AI response, which I don't know. We'll take that for what it's worth. It says there are well over 150. To my understanding, it's way more than that. Even over 200, 250. I don't even think it's even 300, but it's a shocking amount. Yeah. and so going from something like 43 to that over the course of 23 years, I think, how long ago was 2003?

22 years. Wait, what year? That's right. 23. so that was really cool to be in there during its kind of really big, broad.

Host (30:16)
This comes out, it's almost 26.

all the excitement that surrounded it.

Laura (30:28)
goodness. Yeah. Joe and I kind of coming up with some really fun, bringing some uniqueness to the valley when we came in there, because, of course, still being in our mid 20s and entering something that was not our demographic, ⁓ that the demographic was at least 10 years above our current age. That was a huge lesson to kind of learn. But also it brought a little bit of that younger mindset.

⁓ to really encourage people that it's okay to have fun again and help us really broaden our creativity. because Joe is also incredibly artistic and he's so incredibly bright as well. Just with his, he comes up with these incredible ideas just out of nowhere. And the amount of times in a week, he's telling me something that he read seven years ago. And I look at him and I go, where do you

I mean, I'm full of useless information, but he's actually, you ask him a question, he goes, yes, well, you know, like the battle of such and such and this many centuries ago is what led to this. And I'm looking at him like, where the hell did that come from? Well, not even that, just like his memory. And yeah, he just, he does it so well. And he's, he's annoyingly modest, which is wonderful, but it's

Host (31:40)
historian here.

Laura (31:52)
It's so fun to kind of see him get an idea and then execute it. Because there's so many out there that have these great ideas, but don't even know where to start on the execution factor. But Joe is so great at doing both. And I love kind of being there with him to encourage him. And we encourage each other. And it's just...

Host (32:10)
Can you give an example of?

Laura (32:11)
winemakers dinners. We were one of the first wineries to do them. it didn't take off immediately, but it pretty quickly did. we brought the idea kind of to the valley and we'd be in touch with local artisans, local cooks and newcomer chefs that would be really interested in like getting catering figured out and.

we eventually were selling, couldn't fit more than 40 people in the executive lounge, which was where we would hold these winemakers dinners. Gosh, we even held them before we built the executive lounge. The first one was on the crush pad in October ⁓ of 2008. And that was the one where I met my mother and father-in-law for the first time. And I felt so badly, I had relatives visiting from South Africa, because that's where my mom is from. And of course, they're experiencing a very chilly autumn evening. And so they're sitting out on this crush pad that's

completely exposed to the elements and they're just shivering. And my mother and father-in-law came out with these vests and jackets that had the logo of Golden Mile Sellers on it. Golden Mile Sellers was the name of the winery before they changed it to Road 13, but they gave the name back to the Valley because that's what that bench is, the Golden Mile bench. So I guess they were getting a lot of customers coming in thinking they were the information center. They're like, no, no, we're a winery.

And that was one of the big reasons they changed it to road 13 were on road 13. It just made sense. Yeah. But yeah, so we were on the crush pad for this this meal and just everybody's just shivering and all this stuff. And then it was the following year that the executive lounge was built and is this beautiful room. But as I say, yes, it was a very intimate dinner that would be held and we'd sell tickets and we'd get these incredible chefs in to make food that paired with our wine. And it was just

Such an expansion of local community and creativity that was just so fun. And it taught me my love. I already loved cooking, then loving the cooking that pairs with a glass of wine. And that's where I learned my love of wine. Like if anybody out there has yet to try a really good glass of Chardonnay with a fettuccine Alfredo, that was my gateway.

to my love of wine and food. I still do it and I still fall off my chair. It's so good. But also butter, just anything with and that was just really a lot of fun to bring to this. And then of course, there was the Oliver Asoi's Wine Association, which was huge. It was like they do the half cork marathon. It's one of those popular events in the Okanagan every summer. And Joe was a big part of that.

was eventually a member and there was one year we beat out FIFA for like an event of the year with UWA. And that was for the half-cork marathon and it's just like, sorry, we beat FIFA? That's crazy. ⁓

Host (35:07)
that's why. So then

how can you link, like eventually your time came to an end there and what brought you over to where you are now?

Laura (35:20)
So we actually ended up growing a lot more than we intended to at the time.

Host (35:27)
Like personally or the business? Both.

Laura (35:30)
⁓ primarily

what I meant at the time, that was just the business. so when Joe and I took over the winery, there was approximately five to seven different varietals of wine. So I think there was three red and three white. we produced about, I believe it was about 1200 cases annually. by 2018, we were producing 27 different varietals of wine.

and producing about 45,000 cases a year. And that was a change from 2011 till 2018. How do you manage all that? It wasn't just Joe and I either. I need to give a huge shout out to everybody who ever worked at Road 13 Vineyards. First of all, hey guys, how you was such a unique team of passion and it was just...

And it just evolved. was people were hearing about us, learning about the fact that it's a family business, learning where we're located and being just a part of this growth and more wineries popping up and more neighbors and it's, making it sound so wholesome and like sweet as honey. And it's not perfect, but the outcome became such a unique one. So by 2018,

We'd had this huge production and we were one of the few wineries that did it all. We we grew, we'd harvest, we'd crush, we'd bottle, we'd sell. And I'm pretty sure I missed a couple of steps in there and we distribute. Not every winery does that.

So then it would be one of those things where when you're one of those wineries that does a little bit of everything or all of everything, there's other wineries that actually they purchase their grapes, they purchase their juice, they have somebody else crush or ferment or all of that stuff. Barrel aging is important, I forgot that one. That was a really important one that I forgot. And so doing all of

took a really large team for what we were doing. So when we did that growth, it was such a shock when was this very, there's a big award system that goes around. There's several awards all over the country for your wines and your product, but we had entered one with And that one's in our opinion is somewhat like the Oscars of the wine And we got a phone call.

Actually, I got a phone call. I was home with our newborn baby and my husband was very mean and he called me and he's like, how does it feel to be married to the owner of the number one winery in Canada? And of course, baby brain is a did not understand what he was saying. I was so sleep deprived and baby was crying in the background and all of this stuff and I'm going, what? What are you talking about? What do you need? And he's just like, Laura, I'm trying to tell you something really exciting. And I finally went.

Oh my gosh, we got late. And so it was this huge thing was a really mean way of telling me that's how we got number one winery in Canada that year with Wine Align. And it was such a huge thing. And so this huge celebration, we had this big party at the winery and we just couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. And we're what, seven years later and we're not even in that boat anymore, but it's still one of those, I gotta pinch myself. Cause it's like, holy cow.

How the heck did that yeah, just thinking back to that time was just so special. And then that award actually brought a lot of different attention our way. Not just with media and things like that, but it got buyers they're kind of going like, hey, we see what you're doing and you still have a lot of unique ways of how you're doing things. And so we received quite a few offers

some various and we'd gotten offers in the past, but we were still striving for something. We were still working towards number one. We were still working. We still were doing it. But when we finally got this award, we actually decided to sit down as a family and figure out, okay, where do we want to go from this was the award that we kind of were striving towards and there's other awards out there, but we don't really, we, we feel like that's, that was, that's a big hurrah.

then we got this, we were approached by Mission Hill or Anthony Von Mandel to purchase our winery. And we sat down with him and his family and we met them, his son and my daughter played in the corner while the grownups chatted. And it just ended up being, just, felt right. it worked. And so it wasn't actually, I had nothing to do with the final decision of selling the place because of course,

I wasn't an owner of it. was my husband's family were the official owners. we loved it. We all, but they did a vote because my mother and father-in-law, course, having had us out there to run the place, they wanted our input and everything. And we said, no, if this is something you guys want to do, we're okay with this too. And even if we weren't like it's you, So, ⁓ they did end up selling in 2018. Now, Joe ended up staying on as a consultant for a couple of years.

And then unfortunately ended up being COVID that really shut things down. Pretty much downsized was going on. And Joe's job was essentially being a rep again. And it was hard to rep during a worldwide we took some time and we decided to figure out, take this kind of rare opportunity that few people in their early thirties have

Host (40:34)
Yeah.

Laura (40:47)
really figure out what we wanted to be when we grow it took us a couple of years to really establish. did, ⁓ did consulting during COVID, but it was more of the offsite consulting. And I actually wrote and illustrated a children's book. And so we were never not busy. And we did things that helped us with income and such because we still needed to feed our family. we took that time and we...

enjoyed our time as a family and we ended up moving to a Soyuz because of course when we ran the winery we lived on the vineyard and so the commute didn't suck and so it was just like bye honey see you in 30 seconds we ended up moving to a Soyuz because we had some intentions of potentially buying another business in a Soyuz but that one fell through and then we looked into another one and that one fell through

Host (41:31)
still in the alcohol or no like are more artsy or what type of business

Laura (41:37)
One that

we considered buying was more artsy and that one ended up falling through just for nothing, no bad reasons at all. It just didn't work out. so we ended up taking a bit of a break again on that one. And then we considered, looked into potentially buying another winery, but then we talked about it we decided that we've done the wine thing. We know how much of our time it takes up. We know how much time it takes away from each other because we learned one

hate to this sounds really awful but one benefit to COVID and being locked down together is we actually really enjoyed hanging out together and as a family we loved having our daughter with us all the time and the two of us and all this stuff what we were looking for for our future career had to involve our family that was one of our key focus was to make sure that

It doesn't really matter what we do as long as we do it together. Cause not only do we enjoy living together and being together, we really work well together because it's rare to find somebody that like Joe does the stuff I don't want to do. And I do the stuff that Joe doesn't want to do. it's really fun. Cause then you're left doing the stuff that nobody really good at, but you actually like. and then our daughter's really involved too.

We were in a Soyuz for two years, two and a half years, and we were kind of open-minded to wherever was coming our way. And we looked at a couple of various businesses. then one day I get a text message from Joe with a listing of an MLS And we were seriously considering actually moving to Vancouver Island because we almost bought a liquor store out there.

were kind of being pushed back on those details. And so we were just kind of sitting back waiting for something to happen. But then he sends me this text message of this listing and I look and I'm like, that's in Kelowna. And I swear with the mindset with Vancouver Island, I responded with, it's a bit of a commute, babe. And he goes, no, this is a business. And it was this, and the photo that was the captive photo of this, this text that he sent me was this stunning log home.

located in Southeast Kelowna and I'm looking at him going, okay, like that's AI. And he goes, no Laura, it's real, like open up the listing. I happened to be offsite. was in Kelowna at the time. I was just at a doctor's appointment. And so he's like, we'll talk about it when we get home or when you get home. And I said, sure, okay. So I'm looking at this listing and I'm like, it's a distillery. that's pretty cool. Cause it's still in the industry.

it's different enough from mine. And if that's gonna be my house, sign me up. Like, I don't care. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And so I'm sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office and I don't even remember why I was at the doctor. I was driving, like, but an hour later I'm driving home and my phone rings and it's my father-in-law who doesn't normally call me. And I've been told I do an excellent impersonation of him, by the way, so brace yourself. So I answer the phone and he just goes, hey.

How are doing? I'm like, I'm great. How are you? Cause we usually text and he goes, yeah, I'm good. Did, did you send you the listing? And I go, yeah, yeah, he's like, yeah, what do you think? And I go, I think it's beautiful. I love it. He's like, great. And he hung up on me and I was like, okay, good talk. Catch you later. So an hour and a half later, I'm pulling into my driveway and I walked through my front door and Joe's standing.

He saw my car pull up obviously, but he's standing on the other side of the front door and he's like, did you tell my dad that you would leave me if we didn't buy this house? I didn't look at him, go, I didn't say two words to your dad. I just told him that the house was beautiful. He's like, okay, dad just called and said, Laura loves it if you don't buy it, she's gonna leave you. And so we ended up going up there for a viewing.

Host (45:21)
You bluhh, it was just... ⁓

Laura (45:31)
And we weren't allowed to see the house just because this listing was actually not up. It wasn't up yet. And it was brought up a week early. So my husband's cousin is a commercial real estate agent and he got the listing as most agents do a week before it's actually formally put on the market. So we made a call and we were able to arrange to come and see the place. And they said, yeah, they can come see the property because it's still a business and we're open, blah, blah. But we don't, you can't see the house. I was like, okay.

That's fine. And so we came we took a look, but we had already put in an offer before even seeing it. And so we didn't actually see the property until we'd already kind of like, we saw the pictures and went, which is crazy because who does that? I'm like, yeah, no, it's perfect. It's half as pretty as the pictures. Let's do this. And it's as mad as it sounds. It was nuts. But we met.

the owners and they're such beautiful people. so, they set us up with such a rock solid foundation. And cause they were a distillery for a little bit and they really enjoyed the distilling part. But I think they were kind of done with the farming thing and it was a lot of upkeep to the property and stuff. And they had two small girls as well. it was we, yeah, we put in the offer and they hadn't accepted it yet, but then we showed up and we were

We played kind of a mean card. And that was where we, took Farley out of school that day and we took our adorable little six year old being like, look how cute she is. She totally wants to live here. And so they met Farley and they're like, damn it. She's really cute. So I think, I think Farley for this, this working out, but they accepted our offer and it was just so lucky and so well-timed and so perfect. We found this place and so we went into it not knowing SWAT.

Host (47:23)
this again? 2023.

Laura (47:24)
It was the summer of 2023. Oh yeah.

So they accepted our offer in the June and we took possession of our home in the middle of September. Farley was just going into grade two. It was crazy cool. no, it was just, it was such a weird somersault. That's the best kind of, was an emotional somersault in the best so we had to kind of establish

Host (47:36)
So exciting.

Laura (47:50)
who does what, because now we're back in the liquor industry. We needed to make sure that everything was licensed and legal and everything like that. So we bought the home and the property in September, but we didn't actually open until April of 2024 because licensing laws. It all takes time. yeah, so we took our time to figure out what needed to be done, if we needed staff.

We were really, really fortunate. The previous owner's distiller stayed on and taught us the science behind distilling.

Host (48:23)
Say

how like were you still in during the winter? You weren't allowed.

Laura (48:26)
No, we weren't allowed.

so because we didn't have any of our licensing for it. So we spent a lot of that time doing research ⁓ on how to do it and how to do it safely because distilling if you don't know what you're doing can be incredibly dangerous. ⁓ It could be lots of explosions and blinding of people and we don't want to do that. ⁓ anytime you hear the joke of explosions and such, though, that is almost always because distilling at home.

not using the correct equipment and not knowing how explosive all of the gases can be and how toxic they are. but when you have the right equipment at a proper distillery, the chances of something like that happening, you would have to be incredibly careless and really not know what you're doing. However, we were really, really fortunate for the previous owner's distiller to offer to stay on with us. He had other sites in mind for future career. So we knew that he wasn't going to stay forever.

We dabbled in the idea of hiring another distiller. but Joe realized he decided he actually had the opportunity to learn and take in as much information as he could to learn how to do the distilling process. he, he did that and our wonderful friend, stayed on, we're still friends with him and he's a teacher and he's just, he's so

So lovely. that was a really big help to us in that case. And then once you figure out the science behind it and having had the experience in the wine industry of knowing the flavor profiles that we like personally, we also are really fortunate in the fact that the flavors that Joe and I really enjoy, a lot of people enjoy. So we're finding that there's a lot of customers that are coming up to our distillery.

and really enjoying like, whoa, why does your gin taste like that? What made you think of that? trial and error and just playing with flavor and knowing flavor and still, ⁓ my, one of my most favorite things is still pairing food with your drink, except now it's not wine. It's a cocktail. I have a cocktail recipe for you that pairs beautifully with sugar cookies and it's a martini.

And you steep a teabag in vodka or gin it tastes like, well, it tastes like a London fog, sort of, and it goes so nicely with sugar pairing food and, and drink it's possible and it's fun and it's new. no, and so that's just kind of what makes it so much fun.

Host (50:48)
walk

us through how you did your branding and all that. You must have all winter to think about.

Laura (50:55)
Luckily we did. And so this was where going back to my ⁓ time at university actually was a huge benefit. It wasn't all for naught. So.

Host (51:06)
Isn't that

cool? can bring in your past and then apply it.

Laura (51:09)
Right, because you go

to art school and I don't know if anybody out there has ever been to art school, but when you tell somebody that you're at art school, the looks you get is being like, so you're a stoner and you don't do anything and you don't have any drive. And it's like, I'm neither of those. And many of my friends, all in fact, who went to art school aren't that either. It's funny how that's kind of gotten, it's gotten that type of.

Host (51:30)
Oh man, I don't that's not my impression at all. When you go to art school, my mind, like when you said that earlier, my mind instantly explodes into all these like strings coming out of it to be but what do you mean? graphic design, oil, pastel, dry, my mind just goes into like when you say art, what medium? What does that even entail? I don't even know what that means.

Laura (51:33)
I'm glad. There's a lot of people.

I love that so much and I hope that's the case for many others. is everywhere. You can't step out of your house without seeing art. It's yeah.

Host (51:58)
Right? It's everything.

Yeah, we

like life depends on people to make the world feel good and that's all art

Laura (52:11)
your front porch, your garden, the walls, the roof, like everything is art based. 100%. Exactly. ⁓ And no, and welcome to the tree. But it was just, it was really cool.

So when it came to the label design, I really, really wanted to actually do a label at Road 13. But there was always pushback for one reason or that was okay, just because it wasn't a big part of that part of my life was enormous for becoming a member of that family.

⁓ They've watched me grow, they've included me and I am now family but of course when we first moved there I was just Joe's girlfriend. And even after we got married there was that there was like issues with people who've been on the staffing circle for a while because just getting used to these younger and young people.

Host (53:18)
There's

always going to be that.

Laura (53:20)
So there was, it was

a matter of going back to one of my least favorite words, ⁓ optics. It doesn't look right. Like, ⁓ Joe's girlfriend designed that label and or Joe's new wife designed that label, whatever it was or whatever the reasonings were. It was just, never, there was never an organic time to make it make sense. So when we bought the distillery, I looked at Joe and I said, want to design these labels. he goes yeah, okay, well, we may as well try. mean,

It'll be less will give me the chance to show people what I've got. Thank you. And it was crazy. So the very first label I designed was the lumberjack. That was the vodka. yeah. And that's Joe's granddad on the label. Because that's what we, I remember sitting at my desk in our Osoyu's house before we'd even taken possession of this place.

Host (53:51)
Your labels are great.

Laura (54:12)
I designed the label Soyuz before we'd even bought the place. Because it was just so funny because it's like, we're not even making the product. We're still like a year away from being allowed to make the product. But I want the label ready. it was so funny how I was able to source some of these photos from Joe's family and my family and kind of just fiddle around.

Host (54:31)
I think you need to talk about that because you haven't discussed

Laura (54:34)
No,

putting the cart before the horse. So all of our labels feature a family member of Joe or myself. that kind of came about by accident what brought us to buying the distillery was the COVID break, us realizing how much we really loved spending time together as a family and just as human beings.

how much I hated how much Joe was away when Farley was an infant. Because even though we only lived 30 seconds away from the winery proper. just at the winery practically. Joe was working eight days a week and I was at home with newborn baby and Farley was her sleeping patterns, though incredible, made it so that she never saw her dad. And there was one point Joe and I went out for dinner.

Host (55:05)
was thinking, didn't you live on the wire?

Laura (55:24)
And we were looking over at another family at another table who had a baby that was about one, a year and a half old. And Joe goes like, man, you know, I really don't remember Farley being that age. And without really thinking about what I was saying, I said, it's because you weren't there. And that hit like a wrecking ball for poor Joe. And I realized what I'd said after I looked at him, I go, I didn't mean it the way that sounded. And he goes, you are absolutely he's like, I never want.

that again. I, he knew that I wasn't doing it. like, well, it's cause you're never effing around or anything like that. It's, it me just saying it was the fact. It's like you were working, you weren't here. that was the age that she slept. You, you got up and went to work. She was still asleep. You came home for lunch. She was down for a nap. You came home from work at night. She'd already had dinner and was in bed. her up and about, there was a good chunk of time that he missed.

And so that really drew us to, okay, we need to get better at family. We love our families, our extended families, our parents, everybody. It's so family-centric that we need to base our work around this too, because we love work. We love our family more, and we need to figure out how to make those married. that popular expression, you love what you do, you don't work a day in your life.

And I know my mom was always worried about me because we're working seven days a week and all this stuff, but we love it. It's fun. And yeah, there's the, the occasional day of I just want to wear sweatpants and eat bacon. I mean, don't get me wrong. I still do that, but

Because there's that drive of like, I've got this. ⁓ I've got that. And the creative juices are always spinning and Farley's helping us and all this We decided that like, OK, let's look through family albums and see if there's a photo that speaks to Joe sent me kind of a series of scanned photos that he got from his mom

I'm looking through all of them and some of them are incredible. And there was one that was a great photo, but he wasn't a family member. I'm like, well, I don't know who that guy is. He's just very photogenic. Like I can't use him. But then I stumbled upon this of Joe's grandfather, Jim. And he's emerging from three months out in the bush, chopping down trees in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, smoking a cigarette. year was 1942.

I have finally, so I've been saying for the past year that I have no idea where he got the cigarette or how he looks so clean. I still don't know how he looks so clean after being in the bush for 90 days, but he got the cigarette because the person taking the photo was one of his sisters who had come to visit him and greeted him with a pack of smokes. And it's like, okay, I was gonna say like you were in a very damp Vancouver Island forest, chopping down trees like that cigarette should not be.

lightable. It should be very very damp. so I saw this picture and it's like okay I'm going to air quotes doodle in my just playing around on I use an iPad for my digital design I tried Photoshop once and hated every square second of it. I nobody has that much time to clip and paste god there's so many categories

Host (58:34)
it.

Laura (58:37)
I actually can feel my heart beating faster when I think of Photoshop. And so I use this product or this app called Procreate. I just bought some and it's like, and Joe's like, Laura, you don't have to buy brushes. Yes, I do. Because there's so many creative people out there.

I actually got to know my iPad when ⁓ I bought it with the intention, like with the Apple pencil and all that stuff to learn how to draw digitally. And I kept my very first drawing and it's awful, but that's fine. I'll maybe post that someday on our Instagram. But I decided that what better way to learn than to actually give myself a task. So over the course of COVID, I actually

um, had a comic book series on Instagram. Oh, cool. And so, uh, the very early stages of that comic are terrible and it still was never great, but you could see where I was learning and where it improved. that's how I learned how to do procreate. And then with this format, you're able to scan images, digitize them. Thanks to my dad. Thanks dad. cause my dad has all these scanning systems and stuff like ended

making it so that I incorporated Grandpa Jim and I made it look as though he's kind of gently fading into the label. And was really nervous about

Host (59:47)
created that label on procreate? Yeah. wow.

Laura (59:50)
All of our labels are done on Procreate. every last one. And a lot of things are hand drawn. And that's what I love about it. Cause that's where I'm able to put in my actual abilities as an

Host (1:00:02)
I mean, how you get your like the font and like just the sizing of everything. Thank you.

Laura (1:00:05)
I a funny story about the phone.

That's just eye-boggling. Thank you so

much. It's and that's just fiddling and knowing when to stop.

Host (1:00:17)
Like you take it for granted until you actually try to do one and it's impossible to make it look good.

Laura (1:00:22)
One

of the hardest things to do as an artist is knowing when to stop. And negative space is your best friend. Like a lot of people see like, that looks blank there. Good. People need a nap for their eyes when they're looking at unless it's like Pollock, there's no nap for Pollock, but I digress. Branch. the funny story behind the

Host (1:00:25)
Yeah, I could see that.

Laura (1:00:44)
So one, I was actually really lucky because it looks, it's a very easy font to read, but I chose it because it's called Copper Plate and distilling, you use a ton of copper. ⁓ And so I'm like, well, that's a nice nod to what we do here. And like, I love Easter eggs and I love kind of like having a fun little fact of something that's happening or a little cheeky with getting away with something that.

Other people wouldn't know. I can't disclose many of them because. They're not Easter eggs, you gotta you gotta come and find out and I I try to drop drop hints and stuff about it and it's just it's a part of the fun. It's a part of the artistic creation. It's a part of having a secret as well. I love in the creative world if somebody cracks your code, you then have this like cool connection of like, hey, you saw that? That's amazing. You're one in a million. And it's some.

Host (1:01:14)
then they're not Easter eggs.

Laura (1:01:40)
think there's just something so unique about that. And it keeps the heart and the soul into something we genuinely are in love with. We adore our job and the outcome of our work. We don't do it for awards. We don't do it for successes. It certainly helps if it is successful so we can pay the bills and keep the lights on. But at the end of the day, that's not the driving force. And ⁓ so that's where my very first, so yeah, the...

Host (1:02:00)
driving fast.

Laura (1:02:08)
I kind of whipped up this label that had grandpa Jim on it, a man who have I've never met. And it was really cool. Cause I, the first person I showed it to was my father-in-law cause it's his dad. And he just replied with, you nailed it. don't know if anybody out there knows my father-in-law. Lots of people do cause he was very public figure in the wine industry, but he's a tough nut to crack and getting such

praise, like just even like I had to sit down. I'm like, there's nothing you change. He says, no, it's perfect. Like that is that needs to be your base point for your for your labels. And Oh, man, I got goosebumps right now just remembering it. was praise. And and then I showed it to Joe and he said the same thing and and then so on and so forth. And then I showed it to my family. came the task of trying to decide who's on the next label.

Host (1:02:46)
What a feeling.

Laura (1:03:01)
And cause that's, that's a task. It takes a lot of consideration. What's their story? Were they a good person? Like was he, was there a warrant out for their arrest back in the day? Like, no, I'm just kidding. so this is where, so the vodka labels that's grandpa Jim for both of them, because we also have a cucumber mint vodka and then moving onto the gin, the Dragoon. Now that one.

Host (1:03:14)
So.

Laura (1:03:27)
was a fascinating argument as to what to call it. So of course, I didn't know this person either. This is actually, this is great uncle ⁓ Frank, also known as great uncle red on the label. His nickname was red because he had red hair, but he's Jim's younger brother. he's a very, very handsome guy. And so putting him on the label was actually quite easy, but...

what to call it was interesting. Joe jumped at like, we have to call it the dragon. And I go like, yeah, but I mean, people think it's gonna be called dragon and there's people are think this, we're gonna think that. And he's like, Laura, that's why they have us. We're there to tell the story. ⁓ yeah. I'll be there to explain it. it's not just, cause that's the other thing we're farm to table. We don't have back labels cause we're the back label. So that's why you won't find us in liquor stores. Cause being that we only sell on our site.

for now. yeah, so that was kind of the fun part. So Red was an interesting guy to put on the label because of course, if you can look it up on our website, what his photo looks like, but he's with so many people like, he's Tom Cruise or he's ⁓ what else did he say he looked like? I can't remember. There was somebody who just nailed it. looked exactly like, it's going to bug me. If I think of it, I'll let you know. no, that was just that was really interesting to have the two brothers be on like

the first OG bottles. So we've got the vodka now and the gin. And then the third one that we came up with was the limoncello. And that one features my grandmother. It's a, there was a lot of different ideas of who to put on the limoncello bottle. Joe and I are not of Italian descent, because that would have just made perfect sense. Like, this is great, great uncle, you know, Fred, I'm from Italy, but no, we don't have

Host (1:04:58)
I like that one.

Laura (1:05:14)
we were trying to find somebody that was fun and somebody that was unique to their character.

So establishing the lemon cello label was really just because I was really lucky. I got to know my grandma really well.

She lived until I was 26 years old and she was full of stories. So this is going to sound awful. So bear with me. But until I started school, I thought World War II was like a blast, like a fun time, the way grandma talked about it, because she was in Vancouver for the war. She was a nurse and nothing really, she was never on the front line. She, of course bandaged people up and stuff like that.

But she didn't see things that others would come home from the war and have PTSD and things like that. Tell stories from the war of breaking curfew and dancing with boys and doing all this fun stuff, all this And she was such a character. And I just looked, I saw this photo of her and I was like, that's the limoncello label. And Joe agreed, because he got to meet my grandmother as well.

Host (1:06:05)
So she.

Both my grandma.

Laura (1:06:27)
parents

actually yeah the war stories that grandma told it was just like man war sounds fun and then i went to school i'm like what war is bad people died like and i mean like i'm not an idiot i'm talking like really really young yeah you're like six yeah because of course you don't want to tell a six-year-old that like yeah something like war is terrible yeah she would still like even in my teenage years she'd tell me about how like she'd

hide in the trunk of granddad's car and wait for curfew to break and have the boys drive her out. Cause women had a two hour earlier curfew than men for the war. she thought that was BS. So she broke it often. And then she'd make the boys break their curfew because if she was going down, she's taking everybody with her. And that was grandma. She, her favorite expression was this party's getting rough. Give me my pants. I'm going home. So the...

Host (1:07:18)
And again.

Laura (1:07:19)
was grandma and so she she was a really an insatiable

party animal and so she belongs on the limoncello bottle. She was also a rule breaker which is what we did for our limoncello. we now have our, Jo's and my new favorite expression are spirits with a story and it's cool because it's spirits in the sense of it's alcohol but these are also our late and they were they were also spirited. There's so many definitions of spirit.

Host (1:07:27)
She was.

Laura (1:07:45)
that it all just really loops together so beautifully. And so everyone has a story that's on the label. I should mention there is a label with a still surviving relative. My mother-in-law is on the RoseAgen or the Matria. It was a birthday present to her. ⁓ cool. And it was funny because when we gave her that, that was ⁓ for her present, she said, huh, what do you know? And we're like,

Host (1:08:00)
an honor.

It's like.

Laura (1:08:14)
What do you mean? She's like, well, everyone else on your labels was dead. And we're like, happy birthday, Pam. How's your cocktail? ⁓ So it was one of those scenarios where we also got a lot of messages from family members saying, can I be on the next one? Can I be on the next one? the pressure. There was pressure. So after that, we made the decision that you can be on our label, but you got to be dead.

Host (1:08:38)
That's an easier thing to deal with.

Laura (1:08:41)
The

phone calls stopped coming at that point. it was helpful. I may still put my father-in-law and my dad on if we make bitters. Because that's just a fun threat. Because I keep joking with them both that they're very bitter and they belong. yeah, every label has a person and there's a reason they are on the bottle. One of our summer specials that was our first year release was the anti-margarita.

Host (1:08:44)
She's the one and only. Yeah.

the video.

Laura (1:09:07)
And that's my great aunt Marge on the label. And yes, there's a big factor that the fact that her name is Marge and she's on the label and it tastes like a margarita. there's all these fun little reasons and some of them Easter eggs. Not really, though. you get it once you get it, you then understand it. You just kind of go like, OK, that makes so much more sense now. Yeah.

Cause you walk in and people are really taken by the labels and the shapes of the bottles and everything. And then when we were able to tell the story, you then, we want you to feel like your family when you come visit us, like you're coming, you're coming for a family visit, like welcome to our home. This is what we do. Yes, we're the owners that we get that a lot. They're like, wait, you're the owners. What are you doing here? Why aren't you out on your.

Host (1:09:51)
That's like the tasting. My uncle and aunt were in town. That's Yeah. Yeah, my uncle like bought one of

Laura (1:09:57)
Great guy, we really appreciate it.

Host (1:09:59)
But that was like having the owner out there doing the tasting. It just makes you feel so much more connected. You know, it's rare and you don't get that in the bigger places. But that's the thing about the

Laura (1:10:12)
bigger

places too is that I think it's really easy to lose your heart.

Host (1:10:15)
Well, I think it's a natural progression. Like, you grow and expand, you can't be as intimate. It's true. It's just the nature of any business, really.

Laura (1:10:26)
100 % true. But even when we got bigger than we intended to at the winery, we still made a point of making sure that even if the owners weren't there because we were in a different room, we were there. If somebody needed us, we were present. And we'd usually be flying through the room like our hair was on fire, but we were there. And even when I took some time off mat leave, we were still there.

We'd pop in almost every day to go say hi to dad at work and see some customers and pinch the baby. But this is what, even when you get big, you still don't have to lose the passion and giving people that feeling of like, well, there's a lot of love that made this happen. And there's still a lot of compassion with it as

This is really what I feel like a lot of, like the answers are there. There's a lot of companies kind of saying, it's missing. There's something like we were, we were successful where people know who we are. What is that thing that's missing? And it's, it's the, it's kind of the heart and soul of it. This is just my opinion too. mean, it could, it's, it's all, it's for whatever it's worth. But when you go into a place of business, like say like a tasting room,

Host (1:11:28)
What's.

Laura (1:11:52)
And you get some, you know, freshly legal person tell you like, yeah, that's the product. This is it. This is what tastes like. ⁓ You're not going to go away feeling like, man, what a, what an experience.

Host (1:12:00)
and go away.

What?

Or when it's just, I was just thinking my last wine tasting we did, it was very mechanical. you felt kind of like a pig or an assembly line. Yeah, you're on the next, you know. You're the cog. But yeah. Yeah. And it is what it is. It absolutely is. But when you thought.

Laura (1:12:21)
somebody

behind the bar and that's even the same with our very very limited staff members anybody who's worked for us thus far so fortunate that they've been willing to want to be a part of it in such a way that they feel like the owner as well when they're there like if Joe and I have to you know take Farley to school or I've got to go to the grocery store okay Joe's there it's cool but yeah exactly you're like

Host (1:12:32)
We've been so

to a podcast.

Laura (1:12:51)
Do something that is off site. ⁓ Whoever is there ⁓ is as passionate about it as we are. And it's not scripted. It's not, there's nothing about it that makes you feel like, ⁓ next. We want like, and of course there are always times when we are so busy. We're still doing our best to try. It's like those dinner parties where you invited four people and 80 show up.

That's it's happened, but it's, it's just kind of, we want people to feel that like, we really appreciate that you're there because we genuinely do. And like, Hey, have you tried this new thing that I dreamt up the other day? And I mean, poor Joe, he sends me off on tasks and I have a bit of an overachiever with some of them. One example is our peach liquor. it's not like it will be available, ⁓ probably by the time this podcast is out actually.

But he was just like, hey, I'm thinking I want to do a peach liqueur. It's not a peach schnapps. I'll explain the difference in a second. But could you go out and maybe fruit stands or local fruit markets and see what their prices of secondary peaches are? Now, secondary peaches, if people aren't familiar, are the peach that wouldn't be shelved. It wouldn't be purchased by somebody who wants to just eat a peach. Secondary peaches are generally thrown away or saved for like granny down the road that wants to make preserves or something like that.

Host (1:13:55)
Just talk to a couple of.

Laura (1:14:16)
not the best quality. They usually have, you know, a crack in them or they split easily. They're imperfections that grocery stores wouldn't carry either. So we look into that and you can buy them generally for a fairly decent price with whatever you want to do with it. I went down to see some of my friends at a local farmer's market that live around the corner from us. And I just happened to mention like, by the way, if you have secondary peaches, I'd love to like get a price from you and see if we work it out.

and they gave me such a killer price. I kinda came home with 700 pounds of peaches in the back of my Subaru that afternoon.

Host (1:14:49)
700, how many pounds do you need to do a batch?

Laura (1:14:53)
actually not entirely sure, but of that 700 pounds, we got 60, six zero liters of peach juice only. And they're juicy, secondary peaches are juicy, it's still just one of those things to find a fruit that actually has the justifiable amount of juice in it. And for the amount that we need, it was still enough to make a great deal.

Host (1:15:13)
Well, I guess how many liters of juice do you need?

Laura (1:15:16)
To make a batch that's a question for Joe. would because what we ended up doing was so this is the difference between peach liqueur and peach schnapps So schnapps would be where you actually ferment the peaches to get the alcohol content And so it's kind of like a brandy in a way way Whereas peach liqueur that we made we actually combined our high proof alcohol That is our neutral green spirit. I'll get into that in a second

Host (1:15:33)
Okay.

Laura (1:15:44)
our peach juice and you let it kind of sit together in a barrel and let the flavors marry and that just takes time because That's just kind of how it all works. You're proofing down the alcohol with the fact that you're combining it with juice So you're going from about 95 % alcohol and you're proofing it down to about 24 % alcohol I believe is what our final one But not only that we didn't want it to look like a cello

Because of course our lemon cellos, need to shake them because the sediment falls to the bottom and it's like an orange juice, right? We didn't want you to have to shake the peach liqueur. So we then ran it through a series of filtration systems to make it so that it's clear, but it's still like a peachy color, like a brownie peachy color. it's so good. Nobody has tried it yet. Well, I mean, except for you truly and you had the people who are making it, but ⁓ man.

Host (1:16:15)
Mm-hmm.

Laura (1:16:37)
It's gonna be so fun. But that's the thing about when you've got keeners like myself and my husband, when he says like, just go get pricing for secondary and then show up later that day. Yeah. He was a little...

Host (1:16:50)
you got to deal with it right away because most of the time they're already overriped at that stage.

Laura (1:16:55)
We're getting

there and it's like, well, you've got them now. Off we go.

Host (1:16:59)
we go. How do you juice them? Did you do it like...

Laura (1:17:02)
We have

a basket press and Joe. They also they also weren't free stone peaches. were. Oh no, I know. Laura. I owe Joe a beer. That's the worst. was. I'm.

Host (1:17:06)
Hello.

Now you know what a freestyle beat is.

Laura (1:17:22)
Well, was so funny because I did know what freestone peaches were I just didn't know that these ones weren't that

Host (1:17:29)
you just were excited about the praise. was stoked.

Laura (1:17:32)
So Joe's cutting these peaches and you have to cut the flesh off of the stone. Because for those who don't know what a freestone peach is, that's not the peach that just splits off the stone and it falls off easily. These are the ones that that's a sticky peach pit and you don't get to taste what the like center part of the fruit tastes like because it's glued to the pit. And so, I mean, I felt like a bit of an a-hole that day.

Host (1:17:58)
That's a lot of work. ⁓

Laura (1:18:00)
The outcome

is delicious!

Host (1:18:04)
Now you're going to want to replicate it exactly. So you're to have to go get those peaches again next year. Well, this was those peaches because that's the cool thing.

Laura (1:18:10)
is using local.

We're a craft distillery so everything we use has to come from BC or our backyard and but that's what made it so much fun is like peaches grow like a hot damn out here.

Host (1:18:21)
On a good year. This year at least.

Laura (1:18:23)
Exactly,

knock on wood. it was just one of those things that what better way to be local but to use a fruit that grew in our backyard. And ⁓ it's so good.

Host (1:18:31)
backyard.

You know, you haven't touched on the fact that because you are ALR, right? We are. So you haven't touched on the world of having animals. This is

Laura (1:18:46)
So

are animals so the the animals that

Host (1:18:50)
Wait, sorry to interject. Did it come? Did the land come with animals?

Laura (1:18:55)
No. So the previous owners actually rehomed animals before we bought the place, which was fine because we actually needed to do some work on the barn. The barn itself was just old and a little overrun and so we needed to give it a bit of a tweak. And then ⁓ they left a few chickens behind, but we've since restocked the chicken flock, so to speak, and then some. So...

Previous owners, think, had miniature donkeys and a cow or so I've heard from other people. for us, my first purchase was chickens. And we went from having about a dozen chickens to having we now have 80, eight zero. And then we weren't intending to get ducks, but the local elementary school ⁓ hatched them at the kindergarten class and didn't know what to do with these birds. Once they hatched them, they're like, ⁓ shoot.

And then the principal was very wise lady. And she's like, don't we live in farmland? Why don't you just ask someone if they want the ducks? So I raised my hand and took home these beautiful Indian runner ducks. And so we have nine of them. then now we have two miniature horses that I bought from a wonderful woman who lives around the corner from me couldn't care for them anymore. She, she breeds a full-size mares.

but the minis were more her passion project and she just couldn't take the time for them anymore. So I have my two minis that are mother and daughter. They're named mama and baby bell. then I have four miniature silky fainting goats and two out of four do faint. Not on demand, unfortunately, because not much scares them anymore. They meet people every day. So they're like, it's another human, whatever. However, I love the story. In the middle of summer, Joe sneezed.

And one of them fainted so hard she rolled down the hill. She was unharmed, but I was worried. like, she's broken a leg and she didn't. She was fine. She kind of stood up and brushed herself off and looked around to see if anybody else had noticed. Like you're okay. Walk it off. cause fainting goats, if you're not familiar, they, they don't actually lose consciousness. They just get so overwhelmed that their whole body stiffens and their eyes widen and they tip over like a two by four.

wow. And they collapsed like a sack of bricks. But because my poor goat was at the top of the hill when this one happened and it was from Joe sneezing. Whereas like we were using a nail gun earlier that day and they didn't even flinch. They're like whatever. Whereas like a sneeze got her down. It's like geez are you okay dude? but they they have some funny names. We named them after what we felt were our favorite actors or actresses and so we have

My daughter named two of them after my little pony characters. So we have Twilight Sparkle and Sunny Starscout. And then ⁓ I named my one is Meryl Streep and Joe's is Sigourney Weaver. And we named them after who we felt were the greatest of all time or goat. And then we now, as of recently, we have four giant Flemish rabbits whom have already run away once, but we got them back because they're slow, because they're really, really big.

Host (1:21:49)
Yes.

Laura (1:22:01)
We don't know how their gate was wide open one morning. because they are diggers. So like they dig down and we thought like maybe that was it. But no, their gate was just wide open one morning. So they were out all night. And Joe and I spent a better part of an hour looking for them and we're like, this is ⁓ because we'd also put on our website, we have these giant bunnies. I posted on Instagram like people were coming.

Host (1:22:04)
I was like, how'd they get out of

Laura (1:22:27)
to the farm suddenly and they opened their door like, yeah, it's cool. You make booze, but where are the giant bunnies? And so I'm starting to set into panic mode after about 45 minutes of not finding them. Farley was at her grandparents for this weekend. And I'm like, first of all, not only how am going to tell my nine year old that I've lost not one, not two, but all four of her new bunnies, but how am going to tell the public that I've just lost these giant bunnies? like such a chump. But luckily I was turning back to head home and kind of figure out how to

Host (1:22:53)
as

Laura (1:22:56)
fix this problem I saw my one fully grown bunny underneath my tractor and I started like there's one and luckily they go in herds and the other three were all together so they were traveling together and I love telling people do you know what a collection of rabbits is called you know like a murder of crow or whatever it's a fluffle makes me so happy there's no greater joy and if you have more than two that's officially a collective so I officially have a fluffle of giant Flemish rabbits

Host (1:23:24)
my

goodness. That's You might have to move over a family member one day and have a fluffle. With your bunnies on top.

Laura (1:23:31)
We'll package

them up. We'll bring them here. can play around. my gosh, that's hilarious.

Host (1:23:39)
Yeah, and you need to have the animals to be ALR? No.

Laura (1:23:44)
So

we have the animals because Joe married Laura and he knows who he married. But we're on ALR. So we are on Agricultural Land Reserve. So it is farmland, but we need to be farming to get farm status. So farm status is essential to have, especially when you're a property that size, because just taxes, we wouldn't be able to live there. But funny enough,

Host (1:23:53)
Yeah.

I see.

Laura (1:24:11)
the one of the few animals that we do have that gets us our farm status are our chickens because we sell our chicken eggs. ⁓

Host (1:24:18)
and you got a lot of them. Yeah.

Laura (1:24:20)
Yeah, well now I do.

And they lay eggs and we also don't charge an obscene amount for eggs. Egg prices are ridiculous. I was at the store the other day and I saw they wanted like $11.29 for a dozen eggs. girls are happy. They like snuggles. and so happy chickens. You can tell the eggs quality from the overall happiness of a bird. And so if anybody out there likes to make custard, come and see me.

Host (1:24:27)
Yeah.

Have a good ⁓ egg. ⁓ wow.

Laura (1:24:49)
Yeah, but our ducks, they don't consider waterfowl a farm status animal. ⁓ Horses, goats, no.

Host (1:24:57)
And did you grow your own barley barley yes for the

Laura (1:25:02)
So all of our

spirits are made using malted barley. And we had a meeting with the ALC, which is the Agricultural Land Commission. And they said, like, do you have any land in which you can actually grow the product that you use for your distillery? And we were able to find a corner. It's about an acre. We're on 6.1. But it's mostly, so the entire area around us is ALR, because those are all hay fields. We're this one little blip that's like,

Host (1:25:19)
How many acres is the lot? Okay. Forest. Higher.

Laura (1:25:32)
the rock part, where the very top of this hill that trees grow on, can't actually, it's not farmable land. Like even if we were to knock down the trees, you can't grow these grains on rock. So we do have this one little, we call it the back 40. And it's this one big open field and that's where we've planted and just harvested our barley.

Host (1:25:37)
It's not a lot of usable.

⁓ and does that help get you a LR status as well that helps us with our school that you're growing your own

Laura (1:25:56)
status.

It's yeah,

what's crazy though is that so I have celiac disease as do many others in this world and so you would think that I wouldn't be allowed to drink our spirit but by the time we're actually finished the distillation process We are actually certifiably gluten-free So we actually sent our product off to a chemist and the results came back that it's it's pretty much more gluten-free than the air we breathe

Host (1:26:23)
Has

to be like what below five parts per million

Laura (1:26:26)
0.05 I think or is it 0.5? Something, there's a five in there. It's either five or 0.05, but ours came packed 0.001.

Host (1:26:35)
So yeah, there probably is more in the air.

Laura (1:26:39)
Well, and this is the only issue is that this is what makes it so great that Joe's the distiller because I can't be a part of the first half of the. No, well, I can't. Yeah, like with because we also source some of our barley from Armstrong because it's still BC it gets delivered because even with our acre of grain, it's not enough for the amount that we make. But we pour everything into the mash ton and the amount of.

Host (1:26:47)
installation process.

Yeah.

Laura (1:27:07)
stuff that plumes into the air. I basically just stay away from the the warehouse for the for a week or so after they've done that part. then the last part of the distillation process is actually done in a completely separate room. That's over in the ⁓ the room next to our tasting room where you guys yeah the Minion ⁓ the Kevin and

Host (1:27:24)
were the minion the minion my thing is Kevin or what was it

Bob Kevin and Bob right yeah

Laura (1:27:32)
They're named after minions. Yeah. So it's a, but that part at that point, the primary that we bring up to the distillery is already gluten free, but it was still in a facility where the parts per million were very active in that room. So we bring it up to where Kevin and Bob are. And so it's already gluten free, but then it runs through the stills over the course of 10 to 12 hours. And then it's at that point, it is 95 % alcohol, which we call neutral.

And there's lots of names for it though. There's Everclear, Absolute, you name it. But because it's a neutral grain spirit, so we say that. And we do like to let everybody know, because we've had a lot of celiacs or gluten intolerant people come to our tasting room and go, ⁓ I was really looking forward to this. And it's like, well, fun fact, my friend. You sure can. So, So it's a pretty great thing to be able to make it something that I can consume. Because Joe was saying forever that he would love to own a brewery. Like, great.

I'll watch. So it's nice to do something that I can be a part of. Yeah.

Host (1:28:34)
Yeah, for sure.

Laura (1:28:36)
it's quite the ride.

Host (1:28:38)
Yeah, we didn't mention that that was your last name. okay. I always thought that that was the name because you took over it. No, no, but you got to rename it after the family.

Laura (1:28:49)
That's fair. I should have led with that probably. ⁓

Host (1:28:53)
So Easter egg.

Laura (1:28:54)
I I'm

Laura Luckhurst,

Host (1:28:57)
I

thought, did you at the very beginning? did. think. ⁓ editing it back. ⁓ you idiot.

Laura (1:29:03)
Ha ha ha.

Host (1:29:04)
Okay, it all makes sense.

Laura (1:29:07)
We have actually had one person ask us if we legally changed our name from something that was less cool. I'm like, well, that's both an insult and a compliment. It was so backhanded. Like, no, we did not change it. Like I changed my name when I married Joe. And it was really funny. It was not even something... I didn't realize how uncommon it is these days to take a last name. don't know. My friends are hyphenated.

Host (1:29:29)
if it's uncommon. All of them.

Yeah, I kept my I didn't change my name. I kept my name.

Laura (1:29:35)
It's also easier for just paperwork. It's like.

Host (1:29:38)
Yeah,

well and plus I'm I am yeah, I think it's cool that you have the choice. I agree. You know, yeah, yeah the choice. It's your name do what you want.

Laura (1:29:48)
I think it's fun just because it was always just something that it never even fazed me but even Joe and I talked about the fact after that if my last name was like if we felt that my last name was cooler than his he would have taken mine but my name was super cool it was Nadeau but it was very French very hard to spell and nobody pronounced it right and so that was kind of where

Host (1:30:02)
There you go.

Yeah, what's can eat because you have the choice. Or you could make your a new name up and you could both take that name.

Laura (1:30:19)
My best friend, she made her maiden name her children's middle names. So their names aren't necessarily hyphenated. and yeah, I just thought that was really cool.

Host (1:30:29)
Yeah,

I always find it in like, you know, you say your last name and somebody goes, oh, you're whatever. I'm like, well, that's like one lineage. how many how many different grandparents, you know, people like there's four grandparents and they all have parents, parents, and they all had a last name. So this is literally like one person of how far do you to go back? So, yeah, I'm like, we root ourselves to this name. it's like, we're

Laura (1:30:40)
How many people?

Host (1:30:56)
just as much any other name in the family tree than that name. ⁓ for sure. it so interesting. Well, you know, where you got to draw the line somewhere.

Laura (1:31:04)
This is where we decided

to call it because we went through a series of name ideas for what to call this place because of course Road 13 was called that because that was the road we were on right but Coming up with the name luckhurst farm and distillery That was a few

when we decided to do the name, was on the fence about it until we actually went to a liquor store and Joe was pointing out all these Scotch and whiskey brands that are named that because that's the family name. And both Joe and I are of Scottish descent and one way or another.

It just made sense that, if we're making whiskey, we should do kind of like another tip of our lineage with like further back with the Scottish and such and go by our last name. another crazy fact actually, that's the top of all of our bottles has a copper unicorn. And that is actually for two reasons.

One is because of our Scottish heritage, that is the national animal of Scotland, believe it or not, we drink. And also that's my daughter's seal of approval. If it doesn't have a unicorn, it is not farly approved.

Host (1:32:19)
It's also kind of cool because you had mentioned when you were taking time off after the winery that the next stage in life, whatever you wanted that to be, you wanted it to be family, like something you could do together as a family. And then to have this and name it after your family name, it all kind of ties into your purpose of... If you'll...

Laura (1:32:39)
only

know one part of it, then it sounds a little nuts. But when you start down and figuring out like, okay, that's actually there for that, that's there's a purpose for that. There's a reason for having it all, whether it was serendipitously or intentionally, it just all kind of loops around in this full circle. is what makes it so much fun because

Host (1:32:54)
the

Laura (1:33:04)
when I create the labels, going back to that for a second, after it's complete, time passes and it's noticed like, ⁓ you did this because it connects to that. And I look and I go, sure. But then it actually works. And I'm like, my gosh, did I do that unintentionally? Like, or did I, it's just one of those, was that a? Yeah, so it's kind of cool how it's all kind of falling into place.

Host (1:33:23)
subconsciously.

side note my time my my Scottish heritage is MacDougal my mom's name is MacDougal cool what's your what's your lineage Campbell Campbell okay okay mm-hmm

Laura (1:33:39)
and Clark. So

both sets. both my mom's side and my dad's side. my so Nurse Campbell Limoncello, that is my grandmother on the label and that's her maiden name. She was Nurse Campbell. ⁓ yeah. And then my grandfather's mom, her name was Annie Blackwood Clark and she was from just outside of there's big chunks. And then Joe's family.

Host (1:33:52)
Love it.

Mm.

Laura (1:34:03)
all Scottish. man. Like those mustaches are legit. Freckles and that's where my freckles come from too. Yeah.

Host (1:34:09)
Freckles.

Is there anything else you want to touch on while you're here?

We can always do a part two next year too with the next great adventure of your...

Laura (1:34:23)
the next endeavors

of what we're doing. got our chai cream liqueur that we're making.

Host (1:34:28)
that sounds, ⁓ I love chai tea.

Laura (1:34:30)
It

was a smash last year. We did not make enough. People were pissed when we ran out. So we

Host (1:34:38)
Which

chai do you need to make them?

Laura (1:34:41)
depending on how much we're gonna make, right? ⁓ that's a really good macerate things like cinnamon sticks and star anise.

Host (1:34:43)
Where do you source it?

Laura (1:34:54)
Yeah, somewhat. then of course this year, Simps is chai simple syrup. So actually if they're open today, I was going to swing by and go see. They are? They weren't yesterday, but I'm going to go see Jerry today and go buy some more products because we can't keep their stuff on our shelf. So I need to go and do a big buy from Dave and Jerry you try the strawberry shortcake? That's a Simps.

Host (1:35:19)
See

Laura (1:35:22)
One simple syrup. And then I've also just created a new cocktail that says, lemon cello gin and pumpkin spice. We call it the basic.

Host (1:35:29)
Oh,

bitch. I got, you know, I just bought their Hib thing. Because when he was on, he was talking about how his business partner goes out east to collect the maple syrup. Dave? And they make, they only make like 24 or something. Of some sort of, I'm bringing it up right now. Of a smoked maple old fashioned mix.

Laura (1:35:47)
maple syrup.

Okay.

yet. ⁓

Host (1:35:58)
I ordered one. Did you? But I think it's on their shelf right now. They're a block away. ⁓ they're right around the corner. then yeah, do you want to? Yeah, I'm totally good. ⁓

Laura (1:36:04)
can go for a wander.

That's perfect. I that. Let's do it.