diff --git a/src/plugin/utils.cpp b/src/plugin/utils.cpp
index 7735f1c3..1ff05bc3 100644
--- a/src/plugin/utils.cpp
+++ b/src/plugin/utils.cpp
@@ -343,14 +343,15 @@ std::vector<boost::filesystem::path> get_augmented_search_path() {
 
 std::string get_wine_version() {
     // The '*.exe' scripts generated by winegcc allow you to override the binary
-    // used to run Wine, so will will respect this as well
-    std::string wine_path;
+    // used to run Wine, so will will handle this in the same way for our Wine
+    // version detection
+    fs::path wine_path;
     bp::environment env = boost::this_process::environment();
-    const std::string wineloader_path = env["WINELOADER"].to_string();
-    if (access(wineloader_path.c_str(), X_OK) == 0) {
+    if (const std::string wineloader_path = env["WINELOADER"].to_string();
+        access(wineloader_path.c_str(), X_OK) == 0) {
         wine_path = wineloader_path;
     } else {
-        wine_path = bp::search_path("wine");
+        wine_path = bp::search_path("wine").string();
     }
 
     bp::ipstream output;