Darren Oleksyn

Darren Oleksyn got an early, hands-on introduction to the wine world by helping his father craft homemade fruit wines out of raspberries, chokecherries, tomatoes, and once, even grapes. From the small farming community of Kelliher, Sask., he has worked as a journalist for 20 years, copy editing and covering the sports, news and business beats at the Prince Albert Daily-Herald and Regina Leader-Post before moving to the Calgary Herald in 2004. Always interested in wine, his passion hit a new level in Calgary thanks to the wide product selection, the numerous wine events held, and the knowledge of wine-loving workers in the city’s boutique stores. That led to wine classes and visits to wineries in British Columbia, Ontario, California, Oregon, Arizona, Italy, Portugal and Germany. He started writing about wine in 2011 when he joined Wine Access magazine as managing editor. A holder of the WSET Level 3 Advanced certificate, he now writes a monthly wine column for the Calgary Herald.

Photo by Gavin Young, Calgary Herald