About us

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

As the Director of CCOVI and the 2010-2011 Grape King for Ontario, I am excited to be part of the Institute and the industry in an era of change. We’re continually growing our research and services capacity in areas beyond the science of oenology and viticulture into areas of the grape and wine value chain such as wine business, culture and policy.

In 2010, we were fortunate to increase our research capacity with 11 new individuals joining the CCOVI network along with hiring a staff oenologist and viticulturist. The new researchers bring a wealth of expertise in science, social science, business and law both from academia and the private sector. The newcomers also include six scientists from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre (PARC) in Summerland, B.C. This follows a memorandum of understanding signed last year between CCOVI and PARC, allowing for exchange of ideas and information related to viticulture and oenology.

This new alliance helps us develop new opportunities for Ontario’s wine research cluster and for Canada’s national grape and wine strategy. These efforts are further strengthened by research collaborations between CCOVI and other Ontario institutes such as Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, University of Guelph and Niagara College.

In 2010, CCOVI enhanced its outreach services to the grape and wine industry by hiring a grapevine cold hardiness viticulturist and a grape and wine flavour chemistry oenologist. Their work will focus on industry-driven priorities.

These outreach initiatives include a new analytical services laboratory that provides vital juice and wine analysis; wine grape preharvest monitoring to track the progress of grape ripening in the fall; and VineAlert, an advanced cold hardiness database used to develop improved winter protection strategies for vineyards.

CCOVI continues to offer unique, relevant continuing education courses to the industry and general public. And we aim to have ever better communications with our stakeholders, within Brock and beyond.

It is with great enthusiasm that I say we look forward to reaching out to and working with the Canadian grape and wine community in order to achieve the goals we’ve established for CCOVI.

Best regards,
Debbie Inglis,
CCOVI Director
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