BUBBLE UP

Sparkling wine is brimming in Ontario, and the cause may be an exclusive fizzy club

Sparkling wine has always been touted as a natural choice for Ontario winemakers. The refreshingly frothy style benefits from grapes that are ripe, but not too ripe, which plays right into the hands of producers working in cooler climates.

Bright acidity is more important for well-made bubbly than juicy, fruity flavours.

But aside from early champions like Château des Charmes and Trius Winery (formerly known as Hillebrand Estates), bubbly only recently hit the mainstream in Ontario.

Part of the issue was the expense of additional equipment to produce premium sparkling wine in the style of the venerable producers in the Champagne region of France.

Winery accountants also weren’t crazy with having inventory tied up for 12 to 24 months in the cellar before coming to market.

There’s also a question of space in small estate wineries that are already bursting at the seams producing their core product line. It took the rise of thirdparty businesses in Ontario, which took on the expense of the necessary equipment to produce top quality sparkling, to see more wineries enter the market.

Rising consumer demand for bubbly is also paving the way for more wineries to get in the game or risk losing sales.

Some 70 wineries are producing sparkling wines in Ontario today, which is a marked increase from the 47 reported producers in 2013.

There’s also been the research and development spearheaded by Belinda Kemp, senior scientist in oenology at Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute in St. Catharines. For the past five years, she has been at the helm of what’s called Fizz Club, a networking opportunity for producers across the province and beyond.

Fizz Club membership is open to sparkling winemakers as well as wineries considering a sparkling wine program. Without any outsiders, winemakers are able to candidly discuss any issues they might have and share the latest research and findings. Wine lovers might not know what happens when Ontario’s bubbleheads get together, but we can bank on better quality sparkling wine to come.