I was dog tired, half-sick and had worked 11 days in a row. But I simply could not pass up an opportunity to spend 45 minutes with Dan Aykroyd, just the two of us. And he did not disappoint.

This week’s column really could have been a two-parter, and included the following stuff:

On his first wine experiences: “I went to St. Pius X Minor Preparatory Seminary for Boys, which between 1958 and 1978 out of 5,000 candidates produced two priests, two. Not even 10 percent, not even 5 percent. The joy was I got a great Catholic education, had some great instructors, had some great fun – probably too much fun.

“So we had this basement with cattle stalls, 4 on each side, and that’s where the priests would say their masses each day, in front of people or not. Usually there would be 2 or 3 priests in each stall at any time and 2 or 3 of my buddies serving mass. And the priests loved that wine and they kept tipping that gruet. So after that we’d close up and put the tabernacle away and lock up all that. The jugs were just plainly sitting there, so we would all just have a little drink before we went to class of the sacrificial wine.”

On how he got into the wine and spirits industry: “I sort of backed into this business. I brought the Patrone [tequila] into Canada, because I just wanted to go to the local liquor store and get a bottle and go down to the dock and drink,. I love the Patrone XO, which is a beautiful sleeper beverage.

“And we couldn’t get it in Canada, so I asked the owner of the company can we bring it up there? And to bring it to my government liquor store he had to bring it to the entire country and it was successful. And the distributor we partnered with was Niagara Vineyards, with 250 acres of wine, and I started to try these wines that I had never really noticed. And their ice wines and some of their red wines, and I went ‘What? This is a credible business here.’

On providing good value: “My whole thrust is that I don’t like to overpay for wine. I look at the Sherry Lehman catalog and I buy the Bordeaux that are under $29 because I know they’re gonna be as great as the Petrus, c’mon.

“I take this example. I’ve got a friend in Kingston, Ontario, who’s a Harley Davidson repairman. His wife’s an executive at a bank. They work hard for that double income. They’re more sophisticated now than ever in terms of food, gourmet preparations and pairing with wine.

“Over the last 10, 15 years we’ve had a proliferation of Martha Stewart imitators, Rachael Ray, Iron Chef, cable stations and magazines. The average consumer today is more sophisticated than ever in these matters of food and wine. So they wanna go home, they’ve spent money on their food, a special dinner on Friday or Saturday night.

“I wanna bring them a wine that’s dependable, that gives them a $40 Bordeaux experience in a $20 bottle, and that’s what we’ve done here. I mean the discretionary dollar today has to be so carefully spent, and the way to spend it is to get a high-value, high-premium item for the right price. I think we’re very well timed for this market at this price.
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