{"id":107346,"date":"2026-01-29T15:29:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=107346"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:14:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:14:48","slug":"olympic-partnership-boosts-canadas-wine-brand-brock-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/01\/olympic-partnership-boosts-canadas-wine-brand-brock-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic partnership boosts Canada\u2019s wine brand: Brock expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Niagara winery\u2019s connection to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games is shining a spotlight on Canada\u2019s world-class wine industry, says Professor of Marketing and Consumer Psychology Antonia Mantonakis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are moments in history where New World producers like Canada have the opportunity to showcase their wine to a global audience,\u201d says Mantonakis, a fellow at Brock University\u2019s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI). \u201cThis is one of those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Niagara-on-the-Lake\u2019s Pillitteri Estates Winery was recently named as the Official Wine Supplier<\/a>\u00a0of Team Canada for the second time.<\/p>\n

Mantonakis says the winery’s exclusive partnership with Team Canada in Italy \u2014 a historic, Old World wine country \u2014 provides an opportunity to boost perceptions of Canadian wines at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

She likens the knock-on gains as similar to when Karl Kaiser and Donald Ziraldo won accolades for the Canadian wine they brought to France\u2019s Vinexpo in 1991<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That win for Canadian wine not only impressed the international grape and wine community, she says, but also created a culture of pride among Canadian consumers, especially those from Niagara.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe glory of being recognized at such a high level and the exposure that comes with it creates pride and a feeling of ownership, similar to how fans feel when a hometown athlete wins big at the Olympics,\u201d says Mantonakis. \u201cIn consumer psychology, we have this term called \u2018basking in the reflected glory.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She believes that Pillitteri\u2019s status as Canada\u2019s wine at the Olympics will positively impact Canadians\u2019 views of both the brand and Canadian wines in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely you will see a boost in brand recognition for both Pillitteri and the Canadian wine industry as a whole because people will associate the greatness of the Olympics with this brand,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Pillitteri first signed on as the official supplier of wine to Team Canada in 2019 and extended the partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee in March 2025 for six years.<\/p>\n

The partnership features three distinctly Canadian co-branded licensed wine products: Team Canada Red, Team Canada White and Team Canada Icewine. Pillitteri will donate $3 of every bottle sold to the Canadian Olympic Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Niagara winery\u2019s connection to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games is shining a spotlight on Canada\u2019s world-class wine industry, says Professor of Marketing and Consumer Psychology Antonia Mantonakis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":107348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,41,4767,1],"tags":[4018,61,2852,594,15015,13284,1581,15014],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107346"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107351,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107346\/revisions\/107351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}