By Rick VanSickle
The largest independent facility for making sparkling wine in Ontario has been jointly purchased by two of the Niagara’s key winery owners and a veteran winemaker.
Hidden Bench owner Harald Thiel, Cave Spring co-founder Len Pennachetti, and winemaker Philip Dowell acquired Millesime effective Dec. 1. The company has been renamed to the Niagara Sparkling Wine Service.
Commenting on the recent transaction, Pennachetti and Thiel said that this acquisition demonstrates their commitment to the future of traditional method sparkling wine production in Ontario. “By securing the continuity of Millesime and providing Ontario craft winemakers with a scalable traditional method, sparkling wine processing facility we believe that we can assure and propel the growth of premium sparkling wine production in our industry.”
The new company already has 20 or more clients and hope others come on board. The facility appeals to small to medium wineries who want to produce traditionally made sparkling wines but don’t want to put out the capital it takes to disgorge and riddle these specialized wines.
“Our focus is to service and enhance sparkling in Ontario,” Dowell told Wines in Niagara. “When people think of sparkling wine, I want them to think of Ontario.”
The company’s intention is to continue to offer premium traditional sparkling method wine processing services including tirage consulting, riddling, and disgorging services from its St. Catharines location at 35 Yale Crescent. In addition, Millesime will continue to offer a full range of sparkling wine supplies and packaging to the Niagara sparkling wine industry.
Veteran sparkling winemaker Dowell, above, who has been crafting benchmark traditional method sparkling wine for more than 20 years, is the operating partner of Millesime and provides sparkling wine consulting services to the industry on an as needed basis. Dowell was most recently the winemaker at Kew Vineyards and Angels Gate prior to the purchase by Arterra Wines Canada of both wineries.
Millesime was originally established by Frenchman Alain Girerd in Niagara. He saw Niagara’s potential as a wine producing region and developed his export business from France to service Canadian winemaker’s needs, at first focused on selling the special “Champagne” bottles needed for sparkling wines. Girerd’s vision was that Ontario had the terroir to produce some of the world’s best traditional method sparkling wines, and even bottled some bottles under the Millesime label. It was a vision shared by Dowel and the other owners.
Millesime was sold to John Young (then president at Angels Gate Winery), and Dowell and Young operated the company as the full-service facility as it was envisioned by Girerd until Arterra purchased Angels Gate Winery and left Millesime an orphan. The purchase by Thiel, Pennachetti and Dowell from Young finally gets the idled sparkling wine production facility back in operation, and a big sigh of relief for wineries who had their wines tied up during the transition. “We’re picking up right where we left off,” said Dowell. “Now it’s back to business.”
The Niagara Sparkling Wine Service has capacity to handle about 3,000 bottles of bubbles a week and has operated under full production up until now. “We’re going to build it up as required,” said Dowell. “It will depend on the market and where it’s going.”
Said Thiel: “We’re excited, it’s good for the industry.”
To contact Niagara Sparkling Wine Service, call at 905-328-9917 or email info (@) millisime.ca.
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