Is Canadian fizz nearing its ‘Nirvana’ moment?
At a sparkling wine tasting in Ontario it was suggested that Canadian bubbles have reached “a critical moment”, akin to when rock band Nirvana released its pivotal Nevermind album. Sarah Neish reports.
During the 16th annual International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration (i4C), which took place in Niagara from 16 to 19 July, Canadian wine writer Christopher Waters argued that the nation’s sparkling wine offering is on the cusp of revolution.
“Sparkling wine is about to crest,” he said, comparing Canada’s fizz scene in 2026 to the defining moment when Nirvana released its renowned album Nevermind in September 1991. The record turned the underground act into global superstars overnight, with breakout single Smells Like Teen Spirit dominating MTV and radio airwaves for months.
According to Waters, “we’ve always had everything we need to make sparkling wine. We have the climate, we have the grapes in the ground. What we haven’t had up to now is that knowledge transfer.”
The Canadian wine industry as a whole, he added “is predicated on adopting best practices from around the world and adopting them to make sense here.”
That is now happening, with Canadian producers “starting to take the reins and steer it [sparkling wine] in the cellar more, building texture and style.”
New wave success
Much of this new wave of success can be attributed to Canada’s escalating prowess with Chardonnay. While the variety “didn’t used to be spoken about as loudly or as fully,” Waters said, “Chardonnay is now something we can hang our hat on.”
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The size of Canada and the country’s rich spread of different climates and terroirs means that Canadian sparkling wine is also stylistically diverse, evidenced by a number of Blanc de Blancs included in the tasting, hailing from Prince Edward County, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Beamsville Bench in Ontario, to Kelowna in British Columbia. From distinctive matchstick and flint characteristics to sweeter lemon biscotti notes and rounded Brioche, the wines whispered of the unique corners they come from.
Other producers have borrowed elements from renowned winemaking regions across the ocean and made them their own, such as Tantalus Vineyards in BC, which uses exclusively Champagne yeast in its sparkling wines after winemaker David Paterson paid a visit to the French region “to try and find the style we wanted.”
Work in progress
Is Canada a great sparkling wine nation? “I think we are a work in progress. It’s heading in that direction and we will get there,” said Waters, who claimed that five or six years from now a sparkling wine tasting featuring expressions from all across Canada would prove electric.
“And if you don’t actually have dirt under your fingernails and are not making Canadian sparkling wine then your duty is to drink it, celebrate it, and support it,” he added, because “this work will go away if people don’t support it.”
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