The road to becoming Grape King
Chris Van de Laar followed in his father’s foot steps ... eventually
Chris van de Laar’s career has been all about choices and priorities.
When to put family first. When to pursue career ambitions. When to buck the pull of tradition, and when to embrace it.
For Van de Larr, the road that would eventually lead to him being crowned 2018 Grape King once seemed a certainty. At least until it wasn’t. But those new paths eventually led him home to the family vineyard. The place, he said, that was in his blood from the beginning.
His story began when his grandparents left Holland after The Second World War and arrived in Canada to start anew.
“They settled in 1952 on our home farm on the Niagara Parkway and, as they say, the rest is history. I still find it amazing that in their mid-50s they could uproot their family and start over just so their descendants may have better fortune,” Van de Laar said last week during a speech after being named Grape King.
His grandparents have settled in to what became the family grape business, but Van de Laar’s clan hadn’t run out of history just yet.
His father Peter was named Grape King in 1985, and that sparked his interest in growing grapes.
“This was despite the fact that 17-year-old me might have been slightly embarrassed by the crown and purple robe he had to wear at all the events in those days,” said Van de Laar, who today wears a sports coat and chains as the vestments of the Grape King.
“I decided to attend the University of Guelph and pursue a degree in agricultural business and economics with the full intention of coming back to the farm after graduation.”
But his ambitions were spoiled by the signing of the Canada-U.S freed trade agreement. The Canadian wine industry feared the deal heralded their doom and after discussion with his father, Van de Laar decided the family business was not in his future.
He ended up in banking, found he had an aptitude for it and began to climb the corporate ladder at Scotiabank.
But history wasn’t done with him yet.
In 2000, his young son fell seriously ill and his daughter was diagnosed as being legally blind. Both conditions were the result of the highly improbable circumstance of both Van de Laar and his wife Laura carrying a rare genetic defect.
“This was a very shocking ordeal as my wife Laura and I were high school sweethearts and came from healthy families. We couldn’t understand why this was happening to us. We would come to learn that we both carried the same defective gene and the odds of us finding each other were greater than one in 100,000 and the chances of both children being affected was so rare, the physicians initially thought it was impossible,” he said.
His son died, and Van de Laar’s focus shifted from corporate ambition to family.
Five years later, his banking career had regained momentum and he was offered a top executive’s job. About that time, the family farm had suffered serious damage in a bad winter and his father was thinking of selling.
Van der Laar made his choice — he turned down the bank job, bought the farm from his father, and settled into the life he originally wanted as a grape farmer.
“I wish everyone could get an opportunity to experience life outside the farm because I really don’t think I’d be so happy and appreciative today had I not done something else first. This is a great life and there is nothing better,” Van de Laar said.