“The Mick Jagger of the wine industry.”
“The Godfather of B.C. wine.”

These are just a couple of phrases that have been used to describe Harry McWatters, founder of Sumac Ridge Winery, BC’s oldest estate winery.

McWatters has been front and centre of the wine industry for over 40 years.
“I don’t work in the wine business. The wine business is what I live. This is what I do,” says the affable 63 year old.

McWatters’ influence cannot be overstated. He was the founder of the BC Wine Institute, the BC Wine Information Society, BC Hospitality Foundation, a founder of Okanagan Wine Festival Society and VQA, Canada’s symbol of quality wine. He was also instrumental in bringing to Canada the right to produce premium blended Meritage wines from Bordeaux grape varietals.

In recognition of his major contribution to Canada’s wine industry, McWatters was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Okanagan University College in 2001. In 2002, he received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and the prestigious Order of BC a year later. McWatters is humble about his many accolades, but he is particularly proud that Sumac Ridge was chosen as the 2003 Winery of the Year for the Pacific Northwest by Winepress Northwest, at a time when there were over 500 wineries in the region.

McWatters recently stepped down as president of Sumac Ridge Winery in Summerland, but he is definitely not retired. He has gone on to establish Vintage Consulting Group Inc. and its offshoot Okanagan Wine Academy, based in Penticton. McWatters offers his winemaking and viticultural expertise as a consultant, as well as week-long educational programs primarily aimed at the serious wine consumer.

McWatters is also an avid cook and is completing a project that he started 10 years ago -- a cookbook of recipes for seasonal dishes in wine country, set to go to print in 2009. He was recognized as a “Friend of the Industry” in 2005 when he was inducted into the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame.

Where does such a passion for wine come from?

McWatter’s attributes his love of wine to his upbringing in a predominantly Italian area of Toronto, where neighbours often brought over homemade wine in exchange for Harry’s mother’s homemade baking. “We always had wine in our house, as long as I can remember,” recalls McWatters. Even a very young Harry McWatters was allowed an ounce or two in a coloured stemmed glass to participate in the dinner toast. That’s a tradition McWatters has passed on to his own children, Darren and Christa-Lee. Once they reached school age, they were occasionally allowed a few sips of wine with family meals.

Son, Darren, admits that some people might disapprove of that practice, but for the McWatters children it was a natural part of a meal. “I guess one would say that we grew up with a more liberal and respectful attitude toward alcohol,” says Darren. For the McWatters children, wine was a “food group to be enjoyed with other foods.”

In 1968, Harry McWatters gave up a lucrative career in Vancouver’s transportation industry to become a company spokesperson for Penticton’s thriving Casabello Winery. Despite a substantial pay cut, McWatters was thrilled to follow his passion into the wine business. “I know no-one that has a job they’ve enjoyed as much, or certainly more than I have for 40 years.”

Though he continued to work for Casabello in marketing, McWatters’ entrepreneurial spirit and passion for all things wine led to bigger plans -- to build his own winery. A year later, McWatters and a business partner, set their sights on a golf course north of Summerland, situated in a picturesque setting above Okanagan Lake. They bought, redesigned and planted the course with grapes on the first, second, and half of the ninth fairways. Sumac Ridge was born and “we became the first true estate winery in the country,” says McWatters proudly.

While Sumac Ridge was a family business, with both McWatters children helping out from an early age, bottling, labeling and working in the vineyard, their father did not expect them to follow in his footsteps when they got older. Though they both pursued other avenues, Christa-Lee and Darren found themselves drawn back to the family business and both remain members of the Sumac Ridge Winery team today.

The Canadian wine industry has encountered many challenges and hurdles from those early days. “The biggest one was perception about Canadian wine,” says McWatters. “A compliment in the 60s or 70s about our wine would be, ‘That’s not bad, for Canadian wine.’ There was always that qualifier. But,” he says with conviction, “People don’t say that anymore.”

When Vincor bought Sumac Ridge in 2000, McWatters stayed on as its president for eight and a half years. He left at the end of April 2008, but virtually the next day started up Vintage Consulting Group Inc. “The reality is that, yes, I was ready to do other things,” he says. “And my belief was, if I didn’t get on with doing them I would probably not attempt them with the same kind of enthusiasm and energy that I have today.”

McWatters has some heartfelt career advice that he has successfully followed for the last 40 years. “Pursue in your career what it is you really want to do in life,” he says. “I can’t tell you how every day when my work stops and my pleasure starts, because I can’t wait to get at it in the morning.”

McWatters admits that his enthusiasm for his work sometimes bewilders his wife, who has been a constant source of support. (It will come as no surprise that Harry and Cathie spent their honeymoon in the Napa Valley). He credits her for helping him maintain balance in other areas of his life. In fact, McWatters is quick to point out, “The reality is, if you look at all the things I was involved in, I wasn’t by myself there. I was just involved with a team of people.”

Maybe so …

But it takes a leader … and Harry McWatters has been exactly that to the Okanagan and Canadian wine industry.