Brights Wines - the people

The research vineyard staff Ca. 1940s-1950s 

Research vineyard senior staff.  In the centre, Jacob Hostetter and George Hostetter, with Art Neff on the far right.

Brights Wines celebrates the retirements of Denny Parks, Bucky Waters, Steve Wodynski and Roy Wood.   On the left is chairman W. Douglas Hatch and on the right is company president Edward S. Arnold

Do you have family or friends that worked for Brights Wines in the 1940s and  1950s???   We would appreciate some help in identifying the staff in these photographs.   Contact us at  archives@brocku.ca 

Harry Clifford Hatch (1884-1946) 

Harry C. Hatch purchased the T.G. Bright Co. Limited from the Bright family in 1933.   Hatch had a well documented and storied career already in the distilling industry.   It was under Harry C. Hatch's leadership that Bright's began to expand and grow.   With Hatch's capital and previous experience he undertook a research program to develop wines that consumers wanted to purchase.   He hired Adhemar de Chaunac to undertake this monumental task.   Hatch also purchased the original land grant Hostetter farm from Jacob Hostetter who then became the senior farm manager.    

Meredith Francis (Boyd) Jones 

M.F. Jones had been hired by Harry C. Hatch as an accountant for the T.G. Bright Co. Limited.   After rising through the ranks, Jones took over as president after the death of Hatch in 1946.   Jones took the vision of Harry C. Hatch and made it a reality.  At his retirement in 1963, Jones passed on the presidency to Harry C. Hatch's son, W. Douglas Hatch.   Jones remained on the board of directors of the T.G. Bright Co. Limited.  

W. Douglas Hatch, president 1963-1978,  chairman 1978-1985

Young Douglas Hatch at work in the lab at T.G. Bright & Co. Limited.   Douglas Hatch learned the wine making business from the ground up.  

Edward S. Arnold, president, 1979-?

Edward S. Arnold, a native of British Columbia, joined T.G. Bright & Co. Limited in 1976.  He became president in 1978.   Arnold operated his own 12 acres farm in Beamsville where the whole family participated in the operations.    

Brights wine letter feature on president Edward S. Arnold 

Chief scientist, Adhemar de Chaunac 

Adhemar de Chauncac was born in 1896 in southwestern France and came to Canada in 1907.  After a brief return to France to serve in the French army, he returned permanently to Canada in 1919 and studied as a chemist.   He was hired by Brights in 1933 and was appointed director of research in 1944 until his retirement in 1961.   De Chaunac is credited with insisting on a significant investment into research at Brights if a good table wine was to be achieved.  The first experimental wines were made from Delaware and Catawba grapes.      Source:  Wines of Eastern North America, Hudson Cattell

Hernan Gras, chief winemaker at Brights since 1979.