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Toronto-based wine expert Michael Vaughan has donated his collection of rare, award-winning Canadian wines to Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI).

Renowned wine expert Michael Vaughan has selected Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) as the new home of his impeccably preserved collection of award-winning Canadian wines.

The Michael Vaughan Wine Collection contains 2,500 bottles of historical wines from across the country, including a number of extremely rare bottles that date back decades. The collection has been personally curated and preserved by Vaughan and contains some of the last-remaining bottles of their kind that are still in mint condition and drinkable.

Vaughan, who earned his PhD in International Economics from the University of Toronto, was a Professor of Economics at Ryerson University before becoming an award-winning national wine writer and critic. He said his collection was curated with intellectual pursuits in mind. As an educator himself, Vaughan said he felt CCOVI’s state-of-the-art facilities and reputation for research and educational excellence made it an ideal partner for both housing and utilizing his unique collection.

“I wanted to make sure the wines I have accumulated went somewhere where they could be a useful learning experience,” he said. “I wanted to share them with an academic institution. The most important one for me was Brock, because it made sense that it went to a place where the students, the faculty and the winemakers could experience the evolution of these wines and see how good they still were and how they had changed over all of these years.”

Brock University has become a trusted steward for unique, historically significant collections, including the Alexander Hamilton collection that was donated to the Brock Library’s Archives and Special Collections last year.

CCOVI Director Debbie Inglis holds wine from Michael Vaughan Wine Collection in CCOVI's wine cellar

CCOVI Debbie Inglis is pictured adding some of the wines in the Michael Vaughan Wine Collection to the Institute’s cellar.

Debbie Inglis, Director of Brock’s CCOVI, said the Michael Vaughan Wine Collection is a prime example of how gifts of this kind and ongoing partnerships with donors can serve students, researchers and the community for years to come.

“This generous donation, coupled with Michael’s expertise, will be a valuable asset to the Institute as we work to address the evolving research and outreach needs of our industry and educate future generations of grape growers and winemakers,” she said. “This collection serves as a living history of the evolution of Canadian wine, allowing us to learn from the past and bolster the sustainability and success of our industry in the future.”

The collection will be housed in CCOVI’s 44,000-bottle capacity wine cellar, where the wines will be climate-controlled, archived and preserved as part of the Institute’s Canadian Wine Library.

“This donation contains wines from some of Canada’s top wine vintages, including 1998 and 1999, and to have these coming through our doors is very exciting,” said Barb Tatarnic, CCOVI’s Manager of Continuing Education and Outreach. “It opens up a treasure trove of opportunities for CCOVI to take a deep dive into these wines and to offer tastings and research opportunities that look at things like ageability, the impact that good vineyard practices have on the quality of wines, climate, weather impacts on vintage variation and much, much more.”

Vaughan has been studying, collecting and writing about wine for more than 50 years, documenting the 1970s resurgence of the Canadian wine industry first-hand. He is the Publisher/Editor of Vintage Assessments, a not-for-profit publication dedicated to professional buyers, sommeliers and wine lovers, and has personally tasted and critiqued tens of thousands of the world’s top wines.

The value of the collection he is gifting to Brock lies in the health of the wines themselves, which he preserved in a climate- and humidity-controlled environment and routinely evaluated for quality using a time-honoured technique to preserve their integrity.

“I keep my wine very cold because I don’t want it to evolve, so my secret of having wines that are still drinkable after 50 years is the temperature,” Vaughan said. “The wines that have been donated to CCOVI had never moved out of my climate-controlled storage.”

Vaughan will continue to offer his breadth of expertise and collaborate with CCOVI on various outreach, research and educational opportunities involving the presentation of these wines going forward.

“This is the fun part,” he said. “I really want to continue working with Brock, including on some interesting projects I have in mind.”

CCOVI, which is poised to celebrate its 25th anniversary in October, is developing plans for hosting these opportunities, as well as an event to celebrate the donation, in the near future.

Read the story in The Brock News

MEDIA RELEASE: 10 JANUARY 2018 –R00006

Wine aficionados from around the world can soak up Brock University’s leading grape and wine research as the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) Lecture Series returns for its 11th year.

Ten speakers from across CCOVI’s network of researchers, scientists, fellows and professional affiliates are participating in this year’s series. Topics will span a wide range from the debate over screw cap versus cork closures on wine bottles, to why we buy certain sparkling wines and the latest research on cold hardiness, leaf removal impacts and extracting polyphenolics during ice syrup production.

The series has become a highly anticipated event both locally and for those accessing the lecture remotely through livestreaming capabilities. In 2017, the CCOVI Lecture Series garnered more than 1,200 views from 51 countries around the world.

“We are pleased to once again bring the latest in grape and wine research from the lab to the classroom,” said CCOVI Director Debbie Inglis. “Sharing knowledge and providing outreach opportunities like the lecture series is an important part of CCOVI’s mandate and is of tremendous benefit to our industry and our students.”

The series will begin Monday, Jan. 15 with a special presentation of the late Karl Kaiser’s popular talk, “Pinot Noir: The savage yet seductive grape,” by Flat Rock Cellars winemaker David Sheppard.

Having worked predominantly on Pinot Noir production alongside Kaiser at Inniskillin makes Sheppard uniquely qualified to pay tribute to the industry icon though sharing his still-relevant lecture with a new audience.

“Being able to once again share Karl Kaiser’s lecture and record it for future generations to access is so exciting,” said Inglis. “He was a gifted educator and there is no better way to pay tribute to his life’s work than beginning our lecture series by educating a new generation.”

The free lectures start at 2 p.m. every Monday and will take place in room H313 of the Mackenzie Chown complex at Brock University. Paid parking is available in the nearby Lot E. The lectures will also be available to watch online by visiting webapp.lifesizecloud.com

For more information and to see archived lecture videos, visit the CCOVI Lecture Series website.

2018 CCOVI Lecture Series:

Jan. 15: David Sheppard, Winemaker, Flat Rock Cellars
“Pinot Noir: The savage yet seductive grape.”

Jan. 22: Janet Dorozynski, Trade Commissioner, Canadian Wine, Beer, Spirits and Tourism at Global Affairs Canada
“Promoting Canada internationally through wine and food.”

Jan. 29: Belinda Kemp, CCOVI Senior Oenologist, Brock University
“How method, timing and severity of leaf removal impacts Cabernet franc wine flavour.”

Feb. 5: Ronald Jackson, Wine Writer, Author
“Get corked (the intricacies of cork closures and their alternatives).”

Feb. 12: Annette Nassuth, Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Biological Sciences, University of Guelph
“Do grapes SCREAM for frost tolerance?”

Feb. 26: Jim Willwerth, CCOVI Senior Viticulturist, Brock University
“Effects of abscisic acid form, concentration and application timing on grapevine cold hardiness.”

Mar. 5: George Soleas, President and CEO at LCBO
“TBA”

Mar. 12: Tek Thongpapanl, Professor of Marketing and Product Innovation,
Marketing, International Business & Strategy, Goodman School of Business, Brock University
“Why we buy the sparkling wine that we buy.”

Mar. 19: Baozhong Meng, Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph
“Grapevine viruses, their impact and their distribution in Ontario.”

Mar. 26: Jeff Stuart, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Brock University
“Sweet, sticky, and healthy — using metabolomics to develop a ‘green’ protocol for extracting resveratrol and other polyphenolics from the waste pomace of ice syrup production.”

For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

* Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University [email protected], 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

– 30 –

Flat Rock Cellars Winemaker David Sheppard, left, with the late Karl Kaiser. Sheppard will kick off the 2018 CCOVI Lecture Series Monday, Jan. 15 by giving a talk originally presented by Kaiser titled “Pinot Noir: The savage yet seductive grape.”

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