It has certainly become a major career shift for Jamie Paquin.
The Brockville Ontario native left Canada eight years ago on a one year Japanese scholarship to complete his York University PhD studies in sociology in Japan.
However he fell in love there, in more than one way, as he met his wife, and began a burning interest in wine, leaving his studies behind, or at least postponed.
Only all-Canadian wine store outside Canada
One of the things he discovered was that little known Canadian wines, had in fact been winning the top awards in many international wine competitions in recent years.
After studying the market, he determined that there was a niche for quality Canadian wines and with wife Nozomi Mihara, opened what he believes is the only import and retail store outside Canada featuring only Canadian wines.
The store, Heavenly Vines, opened in 2011, appropriately enough on Canada Day, July 1st. Stocking quality wines, primarily from Canada’s major wine regions of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, and Ontario’s Niagara region and Prince Edward County.
He points out that the greater Tokyo area comprises a population of some 37 million, more than the entire Canadian population.
He also says there are more Michelin-starred restaurants, far surpassing Paris, and more than 17,000 qualified sommeliers and wine instructors in the country.
He sees his role as an educator as well, noting that the Canadian government tends to promote Canada as a cold climate country, with many photos of snow capped mountains so Japanese are somewhat surprised to learn of a grape-growing climate and high quality wine industry.
In addition to customers coming in to the store, pleasantly surprised by the quality of Canadian wine, the couple have also already landed some very high profile clients including several luxury hotels like the Four Seasons Tokyo (Marunouchi), the Grand Hyatt, Mandarin Oriental, and Ritz Carleton.
Indeed interest in Canadian wine is growing as word spreads of the excellent quality to price ratio.
A former commercial minister at the Canadian embassy says wine exports to Japan have grown every year since 2009 to over $1 million last year.
Still that pales compared to a rapidly growing and huge Chinese market where exports grew from over $800,000 in 2005, to over $16 million last year, becoming the biggest export customer of Canadian wines.
In fact, the growing Chinese upper class has begun looking at buying Canadian wine, but investing in Canadian wineries and other businesses.
The US is next largest customer for Canadian wine where the market grew from over $10 million in 2005 to over $16 million last year.
First “Canadian Wine Tourism Summit”
This week Penticton British Columbia will be hosting the first-ever Canadian Wine Tourism Summit. Although originally thought to be a small affair, as news spread, so to did the list of those wanting to participate and have this occasion join with a worldwide series of events and promotions to encourage travel to the world’s wine regions.
The concept is to develop a Canadian wine “brand” and start a conversation about wine tourism across the country.
Organizer Allison Marin says the challenge is to get people “to start talking about what is Canadian wine, what is the Canadian wine brand, what can we do to push it forward and make Canada a bona fide wine tourism destination”
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