PORT ANGELES — When you first meet Don Corson, owner of Camaraderie Cellars winery, his passion for wine and winemaking is readily apparent.
“Anybody who gets into this has a passion,” he says.
“When you are following a passion, you will do anything to continue. Ultimately, you discover it’s a part of you.”
Once that passion is established, then it must become a passionate business,” Corson said.
The keys to that passionate business are having a vision, marketing plan, a lot of “sweat equity,” capital and great partners, he said.
Corson started the winery in 1992, using home equity, bank loans and family investment to finance what is a high capital business.
His partners are his wife, Vicki, president of the North Sound Winery Association and Christian education coordinator at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church; Gene Unger, a retired county public works director now working as a private civil and structural engineer; and Gene Unger’s wife, Mary Ann, who is an assistant principal at Port Angeles High School.
Shared and savored
When you sit down with Corson to sample the winery’s latest vintage, he will tell you that the best things in life, including wine, are meant to be shared.
Corson’s passion and hard work was rewarded recently when he was featured in Fortune magazine’s 2004 Retirement Guide.
His is one of four profiles of people who opened their dream businesses, and what they did right — and wrong — along the way.
Camaraderie Cellars, 334 Benson Road, in the hills above Port Angeles, opened in September 1992.
It’s known as the northwesternmost winery in the lower 48 states.