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<\/a>Around 80 winemakers from across Canada travelled to Brock University for the sixth annual Fizz Club hosted by Brock\u2019s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute.<\/p><\/div>\n
Now in its sixth year, it has now become a national event. This year’s was the largest gathering to date with winemakers from across Canada travelling to Brock to be part of the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first Fizz Club was a few of us hanging out tasting wines in a lab,\u201d said Lawrence Buhler, winemaker at Henry of Pelham. \u201cYou can see how valuable something like this is based on how fast this group has grown. It is great to see people attend from across the country, including veterans in sparkling wine who you can learn a lot from and people who are pushing the boundaries when it comes to winemaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTalking about some of the alternative yeast strains was pretty interesting. Back in the day those were some that maybe we were slightly afraid of and now we are learning to embrace them and use them for what they can do in the cellars and in our final wines,\u201d said Buhler.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not every day these winemakers get the chance to step out of their cellars and network like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe winemaking community doesn\u2019t have a lot of opportunities to come together and spend time face-to-face with other winemakers across the country,\u201d said Simon Rafuse, winemaker at Blomidon Estate Winery in Nova Scotia. \u201cTo focus in on one specific style of wine, which is one we do extremely well here in Canada, and to be able to spend the time to hear the latest research being done at Brock is a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rafuse pointing to the discussion and tasting of p\u00e9t-nat, short for p\u00e9tillant-naturel, an approach to producing fizzy sparkling wines that are bottled while they\u2019re still fermenting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is great to see the efforts in studying that style, figuring out techniques and ways to make those wines and hearing from winemakers who have experience making them,\u201d he said. \u201cKnowing where we can focus our own research and our own trial efforts will hopefully lead to us making better wines at Blomidon Estates and across our industry as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an outsider, one doesn’t hear much about what\u2019s discussed behind the Fizz Club doors. It\u2019s an off-the-record, members-only gathering, giving winemakers a chance to openly discuss triumphs and challenges relating to sparkling wine production and learn about new research developments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is nice to be able to be in a room where you can openly communicate with other winemakers because there are certainly some challenges that everyone faces,” said winemaker Karen Gillis, who has been working on reinventing the sparkling wine program at Red Rooster Winery in B.C. “To have that opportunity to work that out with other people is great.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking to learn from our peers from across the country and share some knowledge and challenges to try to see how we can do a better job and make sparkling wine that is competitive around the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n