Welcome to the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute at Brock University.

CCOVI is evolving, and it’s an exciting place to be.

Established in 1996, in partnership with the Grape Growers of Ontario and Ontario Craft Wineries (formerly the Wine Council of Ontario), CCOVI is an internationally recognized institute focused on research priorities of Canada’s grape and wine industry and the education and outreach needs of that community.

As the institute has grown, we’ve taken our research and services beyond the science disciplines of oenology and viticulture and expanded our activities to look at all areas of the grape and wine value chain such as wine business, policy research and agri-tourism.

We’re also working to develop new opportunities for Ontario’s wine research cluster and to strengthen Canada’s national grape and wine strategy. This is being achieved by creating multidisciplinary research networks under CCOVI’s lead. In Ontario, CCOVI’s working with institutions such as Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, the University of Guelph and Niagara College. Nationally, CCOVI has formed a coast-to-coast network with Acadia University’s Atlantic Wine Institute in Nova Scotia and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre in British Columbia.

As CCOVI’s grown, three important areas have been at the core of what we do. We’ve focused our research on industry needs that help increase the growth, profitability and sustainability of the Canadian industry; provided education opportunities to train the industry leaders of tomorrow; and provided international conferences and events that have helped raise the profile of Canadian wine globally.

As we continue to grow and expand, CCOVI will continue to partner ever more closely with the industry that helped create us back in 1996, working with the grape and wine community to achieve the goals we all share.

Best regards,
Debbie Inglis, CCOVI Director