"There we were, working together in the vineyard, when we stumbled across it," recalls the Smithville resident. "It was a shoot off the vine that looked different. They were much bigger grapes. And they were sweet berries."

Today, over 50 years later, Lounsbury's life has been defined by that find. A cutting from those "big, big berries" was sent to the Vineland Research Station for inspection many years ago, and was billed as a freak mutation of Concord and New York Muscat.

Cuttings from that original find are still being bred under patent at the station. The grape is called Katelin and it is known as the world's sweetest grape, making for a fantastic dessert wine. The Katelin has the highest brix rating of any grape grown, at 25.5 per cent sugar on the vine.

"There's a once-in-a-trillion chance you'll ever find something like that," said Lounsbury. "It doesn't exist. Yet, nowadays, they cross grapes all the time."

What has Lounsbury even more excited nowadays is the fact that his wine won its first award - a bronze medal in class Rose at the Central Ontario Viniculture Association Awards.

Winemaker Larry Paterson's version of the Katelin Blush Chateau picked up a prize at the ceremony.

"Once it wins an award, people start looking at it seriously," said Lounsbury. He believes the medal will be a starting point for the wine to go global.

He was even paid a visit by the Ambassador of China recently, who requested to take some vines back to the Orient. Lounsbury refused, however, being more willing to ship bottled wine instead, due to patent constraints. He does ship some vines to areas like British Columbia and Italy, however.

"It's going to go worldwide soon," he said. "It's going to bloom."

Now retired, Lounsbury and his wife, Marion, live in Smithville, near West Lincoln Arena.

"We started out with really nothing," said Lounsbury. "And then you have acres of something that no one has got. To me, it feels good. It's a legacy to pass on to my children that I never knew was going to happen. It's a dream come true."