The 2018 CCOVI Lecture Series will be returning on Monday, Jan. 15 with a tribute to the late wine industry mogul Karl Kaiser.

Long-time winemaker David Sheppard will kick-off the annual series by giving a special presentation of Kaiser’s popular talk, “Pinot Noir: The Savage Yet Seductive Grape” that day at Brock University.

Sheppard is a 35-year industry veteran and current winemaker at Flat Rock Cellars in Jordan Station. He also worked under the tutelage of Kaiser at Inniskillin in Niagara-on-the-Lake for 21-years (with a focus on the production of Pinot Noir).

Kaiser’s lecture on the Canadian-winter-friendly red wine grape was first given at the 2008 CCOVI Lecture Series.

Sheppard was a clear choice to give this lecture again, in Kaiser’s honour, because of his extensive industry experience and long-time working relationship with Kaiser. Having the ability to livestream and archive this lecture will also make it accessible to a much wider audience than when it was first given back in 2008.

Sheppard will be presenting the lecture on Monday, January 15 beginning at 2 p.m. It will take place in room H313 of the Mackenzie Chown Complex at Brock University. The lecture is free and open to the public. The lecture will also be livestreamed and details about accessing the stream will be posted on brocku.ca/ccovi.

The CCOVI Lecture Series will continue to run Monday afternoons until March 26 at the same time and location. The second lecture will be taking place on Monday, Jan. 22 from CCOVI senior oenologist Belinda Kemp. Her topic will be: “How method, timing and severity of leaf removal impacts Cabernet franc wine flavour.”

More information about the series and the complete list of speakers will be announced in the early 2018 and can be found here.