This May, we are proudly celebrating Asian Heritage Month in Canada. This is a time to recognize and honour the rich contributions of Asian Canadians to our shared culture and community. Throughout the month, we’ll be featuring and paying homage to Huaying (Ying) Feng, our co-owner and president, of Wending Home Winery. Ying stands as a testament to the enriching contributions of Asian Canadians, through her perseverance and commitment in helping to shape Canada’s diverse tapestry.
Although Asian Heritage Month in Canada is drawing to a close, Ying’s story is still unfolding, like vines stretching toward the light, rooted deeply in soil she never expected to call home.
It’s been ten years since Ying first arrived in Canada with her family, carrying little more than determination, tradition, and a hope for something better. The path of where home would be was initially not clear to Ying. But slowly, season by season, year after year her resilience took root and she found her way to Niagara, she finally knew she was home.
She often looks back in quiet wonder at how far they’ve come. Now standing among the rows of her very own vineyard, Ying reflects not only on the distance traveled, but on the life grown along the way. Who could have known that a single decision, to enroll in the Wine and Viticulture Technician program at Niagara College would alter everything?
Fate, destiny, right place at the right time, call it what you will, Ying and Ron Giesbrecht found their way to each other. Together, they co-founded Wending Home Winery, leading them to where they were meant to be, teaming up and producing an amazing portfolio of award-winning wines!
It’s gardening season now, and as Ying tends to the soil around her home, she reflects on how much she’s learned since arriving in Canada. “I’ve learned winemaking from Ron, and I have learned gardening from him too, she says, “even though I was a landscaping engineer back in China.”
For Ying and her family this month has been a celebration of culture and history, but also a quiet affirmation: they had made it. They were still making it. Their family roots run deep now, and are entwined in the roots of the vineyard they had purchased. Within those roots Ying’s heritage runs deep, and she has never forgotten where she has come from.
And the story? It’s still being written, one season, one harvest, one shared bottle of wine at a time.
