John Clerides on wine education, building a wine business, and how we can make better wine

Today’s guest is John Clerides. He is the owner of the incredibly successful Marquis Wine store, the premier wine shop in BC, as well as a number of other ventures and businesses.

You’ll hear from John how he modelled his store after Kermit Lynch’s Adventures on the Wine Route, his reliance on a mimeograph machine, which I’m fairly sure was powered by dinosaurs, why John thinks biodynamic practices actually lead to better wines, and much more.

I always love talking to John, both because of his desire to push the wine industry forward and because of his blunt way of doing it. I think you’ll particularly enjoy how John went from knowing nothing about wine to running a hugely popular wine shop – and all the European travel that took and why the soccer field plays such a critical role. We discuss how to take BC wine to the next level, why that requires generational knowledge and why he thinks it needs to happen under an organic or biodynamic banner.

In this conversation I was joined by my friend Anthony Rasotto, a financial planner working with small businesses and you’ll hear from him as well. We recorded this conversation in John’s wine shop, and you can find the video on Youtube at our channel, Vintality.

John is a respected voice in the industry and someone always worth listening to. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and I think you will too.

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