Wine with a distinct McMaster flavour

McMaster University may not have a Faculty of Winemaking, but that hasn't stopped a number of its alumni from making good in the Niagara wine industry.

Charlie Pillitteri, CEO (president of sales) of Pillitteri Estates Winery, received his BA in social sciences in 1986 and says that the things he learned while studying at McMaster have been invaluable to his career.

“I spent my whole time at McMaster learning to understand people, which is what a social sciences degree allows you to do.”

Pillitteri Estates is the largest single-family producer of icewine in the world, and Pillitteri used the people skills he learned at McMaster to capitalize on this unique niche in the wine market.

“Fifty per cent of people like white wine and the other 50 per cent like red wine,” said Pillitteri, “but it has been my experience that 90 per cent of people enjoy icewine.”

Like Pillitteri, Jeff Aubry found that many of the skills he gained while at McMaster were transferable to his work in the wine industry. The president of Coyote's Run Estate Winery completed both a degree in engineering and an MBA at the University.

“All of the corporate skills I learned in the engineering and the MBA programs turned out to be very applicable to my industry,” he said. “They gave me the opportunity to really create a unique wine experience for everyone.

“When people taste Coyote's Run wine, it's a very personal, very involved experience. With the education I got, I was able to create a really unique wine experience, specialized for our land, our harvest and our winery. It's almost like we're producing a piece of art instead of a product.”

Another winery with strong McMaster flavour is Rosewood Estates, known for being the only winery in the region to produce honey wine, known as mead. The day-to-day sales and marketing operations of the family winery were recently taken over by Krystina Roman, who recently graduated from McMaster with a degree in commerce.

“Bee keeping and making honey wine has been in my family for generations,” she said. “It is what differentiates us from the rest of the offerings available in Niagara, and it really makes for a unique experience.”