After more than four years in the making, the Niagara College Teaching Winery has released its first ever Blanc de Blanc Sparkling – and it’s proving to be worth the wait.
The 2014 vintage, labelled as Balance Blanc de Blanc Brut, marks the Teaching Winery’s first venture into the style of Sparkling made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes. It also marks the first product made 100 per cent from grapes grown on the College’s Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus vineyards.
Students from the College’s Winery and Viticulture Technician program were involved every step of the way – from hand-tending to rows of Chardonnay grapes all the way to harvest, to picking and pressing, to bottling.
The result: a delicious, high-end Sparkling with a fresh citrus and mineral character.
Steve Gill, general manager of NC’s learning enterprises, believes the Blanc de Blanc Brut is among the finest wines the Teaching Winery has produced.
“Niagara is a great Sparkling region, and Sparkling wine in Ontario is world class,” said Gill. “To showcase what our students are learning and to showcase world class wine at Niagara College’s Teaching Winery makes us all proud.”
NC winemaker and instructor Gavin Robertson – who is also a graduate of the College’s Winery and Viticulture Technician program (2011) – noted that 2014 was a good year for Sparkling at the College. Rows in the campus vineyard were allocated specifically for Sparkling. Made from high quality, bunch sorted Chardonnay grapes, it was fermented in stainless steel tanks and neutral oak barrels. The bottle-fermented Sparkling spent more than three years aging – 36 months on yeast lees – far exceeding the VQA standard.
Sparkling was introduced to the College’s wine programs in 2012, when there was an uptick in Niagara’s Sparkling wine production. While there were only a few Sparkling producers in Niagara then, Robertson noted that there are now far more producers in the region.
“The industry needs winemakers trained in the concepts and nuances of Sparkling – and Sparkling, in particular needs to be taught. There are a lot of steps, it involves a lot of equipment, and it’s very a challenging and labour-intensive process,” he said. “Here at Niagara College, we’re making any style of wine that you can buy in Niagara – from table wines to Icewine to Sparkling – to support what the industry needs.”
Balance Blanc de Blanc Brut uses the same student-designed label as its first Sparkling, a 2012 Balance Brut released in 2015. It was designed by a team of students from the College’s Winery and Viticulture Technician, Wine Business Management and Graphic Design programs, handpicked as the winner of a student competition in 2015. While the original Balance Brut label is black and gold with a gold bottle wrap, its colour has been modified slightly to black and white, with a white bottle wrap, for the new Balance Blanc de Blanc Brut.
Balance Blanc de Blanc Brut 2014 is available for purchase at the Wine Visitor + Education Centre (135 Taylor Rd, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON), priced at $27.15 per bottle. Proceeds from sales support student learning.
Niagara College’s Teaching Winery is the first and only commercial teaching winery in Canada. It is located at the College’s Niagara-on-the-Lake Campus, along with the NC Teaching Brewery and – the latest addition in September 2018 – the NC Teaching Distillery which were also the first of their kind in Canada.
Niagara College offers more than 130 diploma, bachelor degree and advanced level programs; as well as more than 600 credit, vocational and general interest Part-Time Studies courses. Areas of specialization include food and wine sciences, advanced technology, media, applied health and community safety, supported by unique learning enterprises in food, wine, beer, horticulture and esthetics. For more information visit niagaracollege.ca.
TOP PHOTO: Steve Gill, general manager of NC’s learning enterprises, and winemaker Gavin Robertson are proud of the latest Sparkling addition to the shelves at the Wine Visitor + Education Centre: Balance Blanc de Blanc Brut 2014.
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