Kelowna distillery’s future uncertain after foreclosure, court-ordered sale of property

The future of a Kelowna distillery is unclear after the $5 million property it has operated on, which was owned by its CEO, was recently sold in a court-ordered sale.

Forbidden Spirits has been operating out of its tasting room at 4380 Wallace Hill Road since 2019, where company founder and former Member of Parliament Blair Wilson has lived since 2010.

But in November, the 20-acre property – which includes an 8,500 square-foot house, a 3.5-acre apple orchard, the Apple Orchard RV park, equestrian facilities, and the Forbidden Spirits tasting room and production facility – was foreclosed upon after the Wilsons defaulted on their mortgage.

The property was listed as a court-ordered sale for $4.89 million, and last month, the BC Supreme Court approved a purchase offer of $5,107,000, according to the selling real estate agent Nicole Eastman.

Eastman said that while the buyer wishes to remain anonymous, Forbidden Spirits will not be permitted to continue to operate on the property.

“So, Forbidden Spirits Distillery will not live on despite the foreclosure. It was ordered to vacate and is no more,” Eastman said in an email.

Castanet reached out to Blair Wilson to see if he has plans to carry on the distillery at a new location, but he did not return Castanet’s request for comment by publication time. There’s no further information on the distillery’s website or social media, although it lists the tasting room as “temporarily closed.”

‘Does not have the financial resources’

The sale also included the “company’s fixtures,” which includes “all equipment used by the Company in relation to its business and located upon the Property,” according to a press release from the distillery last month.

Forbidden Sprits was required to vacate the property on March 6.

“Any such disruption in the Company’s operations would have a material and adverse effect on the Company,” Forbidden Spirits said in a press release

“Moreover, the Company would need to acquire new assets to replace the Company’s Fixtures. The Company does not have the financial resources to acquire such assets and the Company can provide no assurance that it will be able to raise sufficient funding to do so in the future.”

The company is publicly traded and is therefore required to publicly disclose certain information about changes to the business.

Forbidden Spirits was barred from trading its stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange back in May 2023 for failing to file financial disclosure documents. While the BC Securities Commission partially revoked the cease trade order last summer, Forbidden Spirits says it was unable to raise sufficient funds to “complete all rectification matters required to seek a full revocation order.”

Unpaid wages

On the same day Forbidden Spirits was required to vacate the property, the Employment Standards Tribunal dismissed the company’s appeal of a previous order that the company pay its former director of operations more than $60,000 for unpaid overtime wages.

The woman, who initially worked as an executive assistant before she was promoted to director of operations, was dismissed from the company in June 2022, before she filed her unpaid wage complaint the following December.

Forbidden Spirits claimed it had paid the woman in full within 48 hours of her dismissal and that if she had worked any extra hours, she had not been authorized to do so.

But statements from three other employees, along with text message evidence, corroborated her claims that she worked many overtime hours and that her employer was aware.

“I further note that the employer was aware, at least as of May 26, 2022 (shortly before the complainant was dismissed) that the complainant was working excessive hours and that this was adversely affecting her health,” Kenneth Thornicroft of the Employment Standards Tribunal wrote in his recent appeals decision.

“In her May 26, 2022, email to [Forbidden Spirits’] CEO she indicated that she was not taking days off or holidays and was working up to 80 hours per week — it does not appear from the record that the CEO ever challenged her on that latter point.”

In September 2024, a delegate of the Director of Employment Standards ruled in the former employee’s favour, finding she was owed $50,737 in unpaid wages, $2,029 in vacation pay along with $7,746 in interest. Forbidden Spirits was also fined $1,500 for contravening the Employment Standards Act.