 The
Tequila Lounge. Downtown Toronto on a busy Thursday night.
On stage the Raging Asian Women (aka RAW) pound frantically
on their taiko drums. They're the main attraction on a
bill that also includes the Pomegranate Klezmer Squad
and DJ MissRuckus.
As the sound of the taiko drums
subsides, RAW call a man up to the stage. With his partner,
kids and friends looking on, Dr Jim Hedges, assistant
coronary surgeon, is presented with a black kimono emblazoned
with the name of the group.
A Toronto Women's Bookstore event
may seem like an odd place to meet up with the burly
doc, but for Dr Hedges the unusual is never out of the
ordinary. When he's not assisting open heart surgeries,
he runs a farm in St George, Ontario, does woodworking,
makes wine and travels the world. And in the last few
years he's added coopering ? wine barrel making ? to
that list. This is where the Raging Asian Women come
in.
BARREL
OF FUN
With his life and business partner, Nancy Sanger (who
also got a kimono), Dr Hedges co-owns and operates Canadian
Oak, Ltd, the world's first manufacturer of wine barrels
made from (you guessed it) Canadian oak. The Raging
Asian Women approached him looking for barrels to make
into drums; after doing a little research, he offered
to sponsor them ? to the tune of ten oak barrels.
With a market value of over $2,000
each, an amount he modestly downplays, that's no small
gift. But talking with Dr Hedges ? who has a bit of
the Sean Connery charm about him ? you get the feeling
that for him being open to the possibilities of life
is what's important. "The whole adventure with the Canadian
Oak business has taken us, physically and otherwise,
to so many new and wonderful places," he enthuses.
EUREKA
MOMENT
It was this sense of possibility that got him started
in the wine-barrel business in the first place. One
afternoon in 1999, he was out for a walk on his sister's
southern Ontario farm, and saw several huge white oaks.
"They were over-mature, shading the other trees out
so they couldn't grow," he recalls. "They needed to
be harvested, so I was trying to think, what could you
do with white oak?"
His longtime enthusiasm for both
winemaking and woodworking soon suggested a possible
use; a little research ? including a visit to a cooperage
in California's Napa Valley later that fall ? confirmed
what he suspected. "It occurred to me that wine aged
in Canadian oak casks would be good: the finer the grain,
the better the wood, and what makes a fine grain is
a harsh climate."
CANADIAN
COOPERAGE
After more research, he discovered a cooper in Hot Springs,
Arkansas, who was willing to help with his experiment.
He flew down with four hockey bags full of wood, and
they made two miniature barrels ? one of Canadian oak
and one of American for contrast ? and filled them with
wine. When they finally sampled the results a year later,
they were pleasantly surprised. "There was a dramatic
difference. The wine aged in the Canadian one had a
much softer, smoother aroma." Now, five years into the
venture, vintners from Nova Scotia to BC are experimenting
with Dr Hedges' barrels. Not to mention the taiko drummers.
Dr Hedges' enthusiasm for coopering
is infectious. Coopering is an ancient art that is,
as the Canadian Oak website puts it, a "complex and
lengthy" process. The barrels are handmade, and getting
it right can be very tricky, as wine barrels must be
made watertight without the use of any nails, glue or
sealant. The barrels are shaped by heating the staves
over a fire, bending them and pounding them into rims.
 Much
of the business is run by Nancy. A computer programmer
and web designer by training, she grew up working in
vineyards in upstate New York. She deals with the vintners
and handles all the sales and communications.
HANDS-ON
APPRENTICESHIP
Chatting over a plate of mussels, Dr Hedges recounts
how he became a doctor against his best intentions.
"When I was doing my undergraduate degree, I had basically
ruled out medicine, because I just didn't want to spend
another four years sitting in a lecture hall memorizing
things," he explains.
But a friend who was studying medicine
at McMaster convinced him to come for a visit and see
what it was like. He went, and was instantly enthralled
with the school's hands-on system of problem-based learning.
He considers his three years in med school among the
best of his life. "I think anyone who was there in that
generation would agree. It was a wonderful environment
? so supportive. We were all bent on the same mission."
Dr Hedges trained as a GP, but
found himself working as a surgical assistant at Hamilton
General Hospital. He enjoyed it so much that he's stayed
for 20 years and now leads a staff of 11 doctors who
assist six surgeons at about 1,500 heart surgeries per
year. He personally assists at an average of three heart
surgeries a day.
WORKING
DAD
When each of his children turned 16, he took them on
adventure trips. Kate chose an island off the coast
of Malaysia. "I spent my birthday riding a horse on
the beach. It was beautiful," she says. Her younger
brother Patrick, now 21, went for Borneo. The trip featured
a late-night crawl through the jungle ? "I was covered
with maybe fifty leeches," Dr Hedges recalls with grins
? followed by a beer bash with a platoon of Malaysian
soldiers.
Between family life and farming/coopering/doctoring,
it's a dizzying pace. Dr Hedges says it helps to have
a flexible workplace. "I've got wonderful people in
my department," he says, "so if I need to take a trip
down to Arkansas to build barrels, there are other people
who will fill in for me. And the same goes for them."
The other side to it is that when he's working, he's
working hard. Tonight, for example, he won't get home
until 1am, and tomorrow morning he'll be back at work
at eight.
But it's not all late nights
and wine tastings for the good doctor. There's at least
one aspect of his life where he's a staunch creature
of habit. He confesses to me that every single day for
the past 20 years he's eaten a peanut butter and honey
sandwich for lunch.
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