68 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
OCTOBER 2017
PHOTO:
BRIAN
SPROUT
WINE
WINERY: Mission Hill Family Estate Winery
ANTHONY VON MANDL puts his money where his palate is.
If you're not familiar with the name, von Mandl is the proprietor of
Mission Hill Family Estate Winery in West Kelowna, BC, and the
Vancouver-based Mark Anthony Wine & Spirits importing agency.
In November 2015, von Mandl sold off the Mark Anthony
Group's ready-to-drink brands, including Mike's Hard Lemonade,
Palm Bay vodka soda, Okanagan Premium Cider and Stanley Park
beers, to Labatt for a reported US$350 million.
One could expect a man might, aer such a coup, retire for a life
of leisure, free from the pressures of the business world. Or, if he is
so passionate about wine, he might buy himself a vineyard in Bur-
gundy, a château in Bordeaux or a property in Napa near to where
his hero, the late Robert Mondavi, built his winery and on which
von Mandl modelled the redesign of Mission Hill.
But von Mandl is not a man to rest on his laurels. I first met him
in 1976 in the cellars of Louis Roederer Champagne in Reims,
France. At the age of 22, he was representing his uncle Josef Milz,
who owned a winery in the Mosel wine region.
My next point of contact was in 1981 while researching my book,
Vintage Canada. I had heard that von Mandl had purchased the
Mission Hill winery from Ben Ginter. Ginter originally dubbed the
property Uncle Ben's Gourmet Wines, and legend has it that the
deal was sealed with a best-of-five coin toss. (Ginter, incidentally,
owns a minor footnote in Canadian history as the man who created
a Baby Duck knock-off called Fuddle Duck. e beverage was in-
spired by Pierre Trudeau mouthing un-parliamentary language in
the House of Commons on February 16, 1971, and trying to exon-
erate himself later by claiming the phrase he used was not "f--- off "
but "fuddle duddle.")
Anthony von Mandl invested heavily in Mission Hill, and in
1992 he lured Montana Wines' chief winemaker, John Simes, from
New Zealand to settle in the Okanagan. Simes repaid his employ-
er's gamble by winning the Avery Trophy for the Best Chardonnay
at the 1994 International Wine & Spirits Competition in London
with his Mission Hill Grand Reserve Chardonnay 1992.
Once the wines improved under Simes's watch, von Mandl
turned his sights on the winery. He invested $35 million in the pur-
chase of vineyards and the redesigning of the Mission Hill cellars
and the building above them, complete with a 12-storey bell tower
with four bells that were cast in France. e results were stunning,
and Mission Hill became BC's destination winery.
In January 2014, von Mandl announced that he had purchased
| DETOURS |
Winemaker Won't Rest on Laurels
Anthony von Mandl, owner of Mission Hill Family Estate Winery, has a new artisanal winery called CheckMate
