Laughing Stock Vineyards
Located on the famed Naramata Bench, Laughing Stock Vineyards is a serious enterprise with a most unfortunate moniker. We wake up every day with the constant motivation of not living up to our name. We strive to produce some of the highest quality wines in the Okanagan Valley.
Laughing Stock Vineyards Founders David and Cynthia Enns led conservative, methodical, and calculated lives in the Financial Industry.
In 2003, they followed their hearts, and bullishly invested everything into the wine industry. An emotional decision that their pinstriped peers thought was … fiscally foolish, and financially unwise.
The Laughing Stock Vineyards name may have unwittingly been conceived at this time. Heaven knows they heard the term over-and-over again from their colleagues on Bay Street and Wall Street.
But this was a venture that had to be pursued, regardless of the dire financial forecasts. As David often said, “this is our ‘vow of poverty”.
David had already started as a true ‘garagiste’ winemaker in 2001 creating beautiful vintages of small batch, hand-crafted wines with fruit sourced from some of the best vineyards in Washington State. He augmented his knowledge with various courses and workshops at UC Davis in California. David then apprenticed under some of the best wine-makers in the Okanagan Valley.
As for Cynthia, her transformation from being an MBA “suit” to becoming “vineyard manager” was highly gratifying. The satisfaction of watching the vines grow and grapes develop was very grounding. Even though, at times, Mother Nature throws curve balls that are wilder than anything one ever experienced in the Stock Market.
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