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Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Winemaker retires, moves underground BY WAYNE CAMPBELL
for the VOICE Ron Kozub will move his wine making from a Fonthill garden to a Fenwick basement. After 18 years, the owner of The Wine Garden of Pelham will retire at the end of the year and sell his business. Kozub, 67, still loves making wine. He will continue to make it for himself and his three kids. He’ll possibly do a little consulting or part-time work. His wife, Donna, retired a year ago. After a car accident five years ago, he finds the physical strain of full-time work wearing. “It’s time to enjoy retirement,” he said. He wants to camp and travel with his wife as well as watch his four grandchildren play their various sports. The former engineer and engineering manager opened the wine garden 18 years ago “when I got re-organized out of the door for the third time.” He turned a lifelong passion for winemaking into
a full-time job using his management skills. “It’s more than a job. It’s more than a hobby,” he said. “People who come here are more than customers; they are part of my social life.” For years, the store on Regional Road 20 at Rice Road was known for its signs. “We had an awful lot of fun with them,” he said. “People told me they came by just to read them. We became known more for funny sayings than wine.” The fun went out of it when he got in a dispute with the town over a sign bylaw complaint. “It was a negative time for us,” and he stopped putting up the signs. Kozub’s passion for wine goes back to the early 1970s soon after he married, when they didn’t have “two dimes to rub together,” he said “I had a recipe for making wine from Welch’s grape juice and Ocean Spray cran-apple cocktail,“ he said. “They called it three-week wine.” Later he lived in rural Pelham. “I made wine from
Ron Kozub of The Wine Garden of Pelham will retire at the end of the year closing his shop on Regional Road 20 at Rice Road after 18 years. Wayne Campbell/Voice Photo anything I could pick. Elderberries, blackberries, peaches, pears, you name it.” It became a hobby, he turned into a business with help of an expert and a wine kit franchise
for Pelham and Welland that includes 150 types of wine. While the kits contain “everything you need” to make wine, Kozub could customize the products. “Everyone has differ-
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ent tastes in wine,” he explained. A change here and there can vary sweetness and other features. Kozub has sold the combined house and shop on See Wine (Page 8)
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