Millesime was a sparkling wine company in Niagara that was originally established by Frenchman Alain Girerd. He saw Niagara’s potential as a wine producing region and developed his export business from France to service Canadian winemaker’s needs. Millesime provided comprehensive solutions for traditional method sparkling wine production services such as consulting, riddling, disgorging, and packaging.

In December 2023, Millesime was purchased by two of the Niagara’s key winery owners and a veteran winemaker. Hidden Bench Winery owner Harald Thiel, Cave Spring co-founder Len Pennachetti and winemaker Philip Dowell purchased Millesime and have renamed it Niagara Sparkling Wine Service.

By acquiring Millesime and providing Ontario craft winemakers with a scalable traditional method for producing sparkling wine, they feel they can ensure and expand the growth of premium sparkling wine production in Ontario. Winemaker Dowell, the operating partner of Niagara Sparkling Wine Service, has been crafting benchmark traditional method sparkling wine for more than 20 years 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 their being purchased by Arterra Wines Canada.

Millesime was originally sold by its founder, Alain Girerd to John Young, who was then president at Angels Gate Winery. 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 dormant. The purchase by Thiel, Pennachetti and Dowell from Young got the idle sparkling wine production facility back in operation to the relief of wineries who had their wines tied up during the transition.

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