I know it seems like quite a shift from my world in fashion, but the transition was something that my body and soul had been telling me to do for a while. I had always pictured my life to forever be in the fashion industry, I worked my whole life for it and focused all my energy on my custom business for 10 years, but in 2019 I started to look at the long term effects of my work/life balance that I had created and knew I needed to make a shift.
I was at a point in my business where I could either put everything I had into my line, which would have brought me lots of happiness also, but something was telling me I wasn’t done learning and expending on my skills, so I decided to make a move. I kept my design business as a custom side project, but I moved to the Okanagan in February of 2020 to try something new. I had loved wine for many years and didn’t know a lot about it, but I was keen on learning and thought that it seemed like a fun adventure in a city I had grown to love from a few years of summer visits! Little did I know how much the move would change my life, and 2 weeks later, the Pandemic hit and I was thrown into an entirely new world out here.
How did you prepare for/ learn the skills needed to work at a winery? What exactly does the job of General Manager entail on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis?
I really threw myself into a brand new industry with absolutely no background, and learned on the fly. I was very lucky that the first businesses deemed “Essential” during that first year of Covid was anything Alcohol related (I wonder why, haha), and I had a friend who was looking for seasonal work at a winery, so I landed as a Tasting Room Associate at a small local winery. I had always enjoyed sales jobs, especially when I could sell what I loved, so selling wine came very natural to me and I quickly fell in love with the industry.
I have always been fascinated with how things are made, and for me Wine was the perfect mix of science and art. It allowed me to learn continuously (and also very, very much enjoy the end product). I worked my way up from an associate and eventually managed another local winery before landing my current role as GM at French Door Estate Winery.
During the years I transitioned from the tasting room to management, I took courses / certifications, bugged every winemaker I knew to teach me what they were doing, tried as many dirty jobs as I could to learn about the process of making wine (I was small enough to fit in tanks to clean them so I loved hopping in the cellar to do this!) and I continue to do as much education as I can. I brought in instructors from Vancouver to teach high level wine certifications for some other interested winemakers in the region, and am always geeking out about wine and learning with my colleagues. It is a never ending learning atmosphere, which I absolutely adore.
In my current role, I am a big of a jack of all trades. My winery is quite small (200-3000 case production) and we have no other levels of management, so I run all the daily operations, do the hiring, oversee the needs of my winemaking team (Petar Djuric and Pascal Madevon) and Vineyard Team (Gurdeep Gill) in terms of ordering & organizing, work with my wonderful Marketing & Sales Director (Alyssa Shull) on Wine Club and sales operations, and oversee all estate operations. It is a VERY full time job, but I find the work/life balance is much more healthy than my past in the fashion industry, and I feel productive but never the same level of stress I felt earlier in life.
At the beginning there is usually a bit of a learning curve. What about this new position was easy to step into. What areas were more of a challenge?
There was a massive learning curve with this transition haha, I went from knowing literally nothing about wine to managing a beautiful estate in 5 years. I threw everything I had into this transition because it felt so natural, so inspiring, and yet very little stress. I have been incredibly lucky to have learned from so many amazing mentors from GM’s to owners to winemakers, and I am so grateful for the support of the owners at French Door who have given me lots of room to develop the systems at this winery. There are always seasonal challenges in this business (weather, primarily) which likes to keep us pivoting and guessing, but I feel so invigorated in this industry for that exact reason, nothing is every the same.
Buying Canadian, and buying local are really important now. So where can readers find your wines and are they available to purchase direct from the winery?
This is quite the year for wine when it comes to buying local, not only are we now seeing the current effects of the US tariffs/changes in their government which is driving sales in BC, but we also had 2 absolutely devastating climate effects in BC viticulture that wiped out a massive amount of grapes. We were incredibly lucky to be able to source all of our grapes for the past 2 vintages all from Oliver & Osoyoos BC, due to very strong connections to local growers, but it was not the same story for a lot of other wineries. I am so grateful for all the efforts my team put in to produce such an incredible vintage this year inspire of all the hardships, and I am so excited to release it this Spring!
On a side note, I wondered if you are still making time work as a designer and photographer. If so, what is the best way to connect with you?
Since my move to the Wine Industry, I have still be taking clients in design (custom evening gowns, bridal) and photography (definitely more focused on branding/lifestyle out here rather than fashion, but I’d LOVE to get back into fashion photography!), and I can be reached through my website at www.samstringer.net. I don’t take on a lot of design work at the moment as my current role has me quite busy, but hoping to focus on some more photographic work this summer while my vines are growing!
How did you prepare for/ learn the skills needed to work at a winery? What exactly does the job of General Manager entail on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis?
I really threw myself into a brand new industry with absolutely no background, and learned on the fly. I was very lucky that the first businesses deemed “Essential” during that first year of Covid was anything Alcohol related (I wonder why, haha), and I had a friend who was looking for seasonal work at a winery, so I landed as a Tasting Room Associate at a small local winery. I had always enjoyed sales jobs, especially when I could sell what I loved, so selling wine came very natural to me and I quickly fell in love with the industry.
I have always been fascinated with how things are made, and for me Wine was the perfect mix of science and art. It allowed me to learn continuously (and also very, very much enjoy the end product). I worked my way up from an associate and eventually managed another local winery before landing my current role as GM at French Door Estate Winery.
During the years I transitioned from the tasting room to management, I took courses / certifications, bugged every winemaker I knew to teach me what they were doing, tried as many dirty jobs as I could to learn about the process of making wine (I was small enough to fit in tanks to clean them so I loved hopping in the cellar to do this!) and I continue to do as much education as I can. I brought in instructors from Vancouver to teach high level wine certifications for some other interested winemakers in the region, and am always geeking out about wine and learning with my colleagues. It is a never ending learning atmosphere, which I absolutely adore. In my current role, I am a big of a jack of all trades. My winery is quite small (200-3000 case production) and we have no other levels of management, so I run all the daily operations, do the hiring, oversee the needs of my winemaking team (Petar Djuric and Pascal Madevon) and Vineyard Team (Gurdeep Gill) in terms of ordering & organizing, work with my wonderful Marketing & Sales Director (Alyssa Shull) on Wine Club and sales operations, and oversee all estate operations. It is a VERY full time job, but I find the work/life balance is much more healthy than my past in the fashion industry, and I feel productive but never the same level of stress I felt earlier in life.
At the beginning there is usually a bit of a learning curve. What about this new position was easy to step into. What areas were more of a challenge?
There was a massive learning curve with this transition haha, I went from knowing literally nothing about wine to managing a beautiful estate in 5 years. I threw everything I had into this transition because it felt so natural, so inspiring, and yet very little stress. I have been incredibly lucky to have learned from so many amazing mentors from GM’s to owners to winemakers, and I am so grateful for the support of the owners at French Door who have given me lots of room to develop the systems at this winery. There are always seasonal challenges in this business (weather, primarily) which likes to keep us pivoting and guessing, but I feel so invigorated in this industry for that exact reason, nothing is every the same.
Was there any crossover in what was required of you when running your fashion and photography businesses, and what you do now when running the winery?
There was actually a lot of crossover from my previous life of fashion & photography that helped me in my current industry. I think community building & working with local experts was the biggest help, I had spent over a decade building connections and a powerful network in Vancouver with regards to fashion/photography, so doing the same in my new industry came a lot easier to me which allowed me to progress quickly. I also came from a background of production in general, and overseeing production facilities (when I was. Lab Coordinator at the School of Design), and those skills directly translated into the wine industry. Instead of looking at fabric and thread, I was purchasing grapes and tractor equipment, and the end result was always something beautifully and lovingly crafted by talented people.
Readers would love to hear more about the French Door Winery. How long has it been in business? What kind of grapes does it grow? What sorts of wine does it bottle and sell. Do you have a favorite wine?
French Door actually had a similar timeframe as my entrance into the industry as it opened its doors the summer of 2020. The owners took over the property in 2019 from an existing winery and spent a year updating and perfecting their mission. The winery produced French-inspired wines all grown locally in Oliver & Osoyoos BC, with a focus on small batch, beautifully crafted wines. We grow 11 different varietals on the property including Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault, and some other rare grapes, but my personal favourite is the Malbec and Sauvignon Blanc that we make.
There was actually a lot of crossover from my previous life of fashion & photography that helped me in my current industry. I think community building & working with local experts was the biggest help, I had spent over a decade building connections and a powerful network in Vancouver with regards to fashion/photography, so doing the same in my new industry came a lot easier to me which allowed me to progress quickly. I also came from a background of production in general, and overseeing production facilities (when I was. Lab Coordinator at the School of Design), and those skills directly translated into the wine industry. Instead of looking at fabric and thread, I was purchasing grapes and tractor equipment, and the end result was always something beautifully and lovingly crafted by talented people.
French Door actually had a similar timeframe as my entrance into the industry as it opened its doors the summer of 2020. The owners took over the property in 2019 from an existing winery and spent a year updating and perfecting their mission. The winery produced French-inspired wines all grown locally in Oliver & Osoyoos BC, with a focus on small batch, beautifully crafted wines. We grow 11 different varietals on the property including Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault, and some other rare grapes, but my personal favourite is the Malbec and Sauvignon Blanc that we make.
Buying Canadian, and buying local are really important now. So where can readers find your wines and are they available to purchase direct from the winery?
This is quite the year for wine when it comes to buying local, not only are we now seeing the current effects of the US tariffs/changes in their government which is driving sales in BC, but we also had 2 absolutely devastating climate effects in BC viticulture that wiped out a massive amount of grapes. We were incredibly lucky to be able to source all of our grapes for the past 2 vintages all from Oliver & Osoyoos BC, due to very strong connections to local growers, but it was not the same story for a lot of other wineries. I am so grateful for all the efforts my team put in to produce such an incredible vintage this year inspire of all the hardships, and I am so excited to release it this Spring!
Since my move to the Wine Industry, I have still be taking clients in design (custom evening gowns, bridal) and photography (definitely more focused on branding/lifestyle out here rather than fashion, but I’d LOVE to get back into fashion photography!), and I can be reached through my website at www.samstringer.net. I don’t take on a lot of design work at the moment as my current role has me quite busy, but hoping to focus on some more photographic work this summer while my vines are growing!
Links -
- Website - https://frenchdoorwinery.com/
- Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/frenchdoorwinery/
- Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/frenchdoorwinery/
- Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/samstringerstudios/
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