![]() ![]() As Bloomberg put it: “Von Mandl has since made a fortune creating genre-defying alcoholic beverages.” “Everything I created was an example of having to invent something new or at least put a twist on something existing,” von Mandl noted in 2003. The company has at times struggled to keep White Claw in stock. in 2019, according to Bloomberg, outsold every craft beer and even huge brands such as Budweiser for stretches at a time. More recently, he delivered another beer alternative hit: White Claw Hard Seltzer, which in the U.S. Cartons of White Claw at a store in New York City. ![]() in 1999, and in 2015, Labatt Breweries bought the Canadian rights to the popular drink (and a few other Mark Anthony Group brands) in a US$350-million deal. Ten years later, he created Mike’s Hard Lemonade, a beer alternative that he later said was the source of fist-fights at liquor stores in Ontario when supply dwindled. In 1986, he launched Corona beer in Canada. “We were a very young industry at the time, and that… provided a halo effect not just for the Okanagan, but the entire Canadian wine industry… He’s showing that we can produce some of the best wines in the world, not just ice wine.” “That, in a big way, put the Canadian wine industry on the map,” said Dan Paszkowski, president and CEO of the Wine Growers of Canada, in an interview. In 1994, Mission Hill Family Estate’s 1992 Grand Reserve Chardonnay won best chardonnay at the International Wine and Spirits Competition. He proceeded to add a 12-storey bell tower, blasted underground cellars out of volcanic rock, added hundreds of acres to his holdings, and greatly improved the wine. Photo by Brian Sprout/Postmedia News files “I barely slept that night, wondering if I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.” Anthony von Mandl at the Mission Hill Winery in 2002. Surveying his new purchase, von Mandl found it full of dirt and fruit flies. “My competitors thought I was absolutely mad.” “My friends thought I was crazy,” he recalled. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In 1981, von Mandl fulfilled his ambition of owning a winery, purchasing with partners an estate on Mission Hill in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley, which he viewed as “a Napa Valley with a 90-mile lake running through it.” Despite some initial success selling white wines to Canadian airlines, von Mandl got burned in Los Angeles - where he’d set up a shabby warehouse - when he delivered 80 cases of wine (using his station wagon) to a store in receivership. His only clients were vintners “who didn’t know where Canada was or didn’t care,” and he worked out of an office in Vancouver next to a Greyhound bus station. “Of course, no one in the industry would give a 22-year-old kid the rights to their wines,” he recalled. So he apprenticed in the wine trade in Europe before attempting to become the Canadian importer for various international wineries. Photo by Jeff Vinnick/National Post files Article content Anthony von Mandl checks grape vines at his Mission Hill Winery in 1999. ![]() ![]()
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