Ilya Senchuk – Consulting Winemaker
Joining The Good Earth as Consulting Winemaker for Harvest 2016 is Ilya Senchuk. Ilya has created quite the reputation for himself as one of Canada’s top young winemakers. After winemaking stints at Niagara’s Daniel Lenko and The Foreign Affair Winery, Ilya and wife Nadia followed their dream and opened their own winery, Leaning Post Wines in 2013. Since there he’s continued to grab the wine community’s attention. Out of all the winemaker’s that Nicolette had to choose from, why Ilya? She loves his passion and well… he totally gets what we are trying to do here at The Good Earth!
What are you thinking of right now?
Grapes and how to turn them into the best wine possible. My wife says that’s all I think about. She might be right.
What makes you laugh?
Monty Python
What makes you cry?
Bad Wine
What do you consider to be the greatest invention?
The Glass. It doesn’t matter what container wine comes out of, the glass is the way we all enjoy it!
Do you have a mentor or inspirational figure that has guided or influenced you?
My grandmother. She lived a very full life to 97 and always wished me health, happiness and lots of money!
Where do you feel the most at home?
Talking about wine, anywhere.
What is your proudest achievement in work?
Turning a virtual label into a bricks-and-mortar winery
What is your proudest achievement in life?
Having 3 beautiful children
What do you most dislike about contemporary culture?
The need for immediate gratification. Sometimes delayed gratification is so much better.
What do you most like about the age we live in?
The openness and endless possibilities
At what points do life and work intersect?
All points! I live on a vineyard and make wine for a living so it’s pretty much everywhere.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Do what you love and love what you do
What is the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Moving to Niagara to do winemaking after growing up in Winnipeg
Recommend a book or poem that has changed your perspective on life.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Persig
What is your earliest childhood memory?
My aunt leading me to look out a window of our old house in Winnipeg
What’s the most important relationship in your life?
My marriage to my wife Nadia
What’s the most romantic action you’ve taken?
Writing a song for my wife then singing it to her right before I proposed
What’s the most spiritual action you’ve taken?
Having children. It changes your life at a spiritual level.
If you could wish for one change in the world what would it be?
More empathy. I think if we all could understand others perspectives just a bit better we would all be better off.
