Canadian Wine with Ann Sperling

This week’s podcast features Ann Sperling, a legendary wine maker from BC who has been in Ontario now for many years. She has a long family history in BC and is the great-granddaughter of Giovanni Casorso, who is (if we need one) the real father of BC’s wine industry.  She spent her first years as a winemaker at André’s Wines in Port Moody in the 1980s before taking on winemaking at the early years of CedarCreek where her wines (specifically a Merlot) was considered so good at a fall Wine Festival awards that they created a platinum award just for the Merlot that year. She's consulted with Clos du Soleil in the Similkameen Valley and most recently headed Sperling Vineyards on her family’s property in Kelowna’s Mission Creek area. She consults with many wineries in Ontario and around the world. Together with her husband, Peter Gamble, collectively, they know more about wine than I can ever hope to know. 

Talking with Ann was really special because she was the first person that I interviewed in the winter of 2015 as I began the research for what became my first book, Valleys of Wine. Chatting with her at her historic home east of St. Catharine’s was a great honour and was a great way to end my podcast recordings on that trip.

Please note – This is an information-rich conversation, with a lot of industry-talk on some complex themes. Ann is one of the most knowledgeable people in the country about wine and I was not going to let the opportunity pass without digging deep. If you hear anything that doesn’t make sense to you or if you want to know more about something, please email me at sipsterswinepodcast@gmail.com with your question and I will do my best to reply. Ann was also recovering from a bad cold when we spoke so there is a slight rasp to her voice that is not there normally. 

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