Fracette: Ontario’s New Sparkling Wine Style Is Sparked by Ice

By Matt Steeves

Ontario has earned an international reputation for Icewine and, increasingly, for exceptional traditional-method sparkling wine. Now, a new VQA sparkling wine category brings those two strengths together in a distinctly Canadian way.

Introducing Fracette (pronounced frah-SET), a new Brut-style sparkling wine in which VQA Icewine is used to initiate the second fermentation that creates the wine’s bubbles.

It’s an intriguing concept: take perhaps Canada’s most recognizable wine style and use it not to create sweetness, but as an integral part of producing a dry, crisp and refreshing sparkling wine.

I recently spoke with Sandra Smith of Arterra Wines Canada, one of the companies behind the initiative, about how Fracette came about and what Icewine can bring to sparkling wine beyond sugar.

What Exactly Is Fracette?

A little sparkling-wine 101 helps explain what makes Fracette different.

Traditional-method sparkling wine begins as a still base wine before undergoing a second fermentation. A liqueur de tirage containing sugar and yeast initiates that fermentation, producing the carbon dioxide responsible for the bubbles.

With Fracette, there’s a uniquely Canadian twist: the tirage liqueur’s sugar source is 100% VQA Icewine.

The yeast consumes the Icewine sugars during secondary fermentation, creating the sparkle while potentially leaving behind some of the concentrated fruit character and complexity associated with Icewine. Smith described additional layers of ripe fruit complementing the fresher fruit character of the base sparkling wine.

The finished wine, however, isn’t intended to drink like Icewine. Fracette is a Brut-style sparkling category with a maximum 15 g/L residual sugar, designed around freshness, vibrancy and drinkability.

In other words, this isn’t about sweetening sparkling wine with Icewine. It’s about using Icewine to create sparkling wine.

Frozen + Facet

Even the name tells the story.

Fracette combines frozen, referencing the grapes naturally frozen on the vine for Icewine, with facet, like the multiple faces of a gemstone and the additional dimensions the Icewine can contribute to the wine.

It’s an appropriately Canadian idea.

The sparkling-wine world already has internationally recognizable identities in Champagne, Prosecco and Cava. The question behind Fracette was different: what could Canadian winemakers create that was genuinely their own?

The answer was to combine two things Ontario already does exceptionally well: sparkling wine and Icewine. Smith described the objective as creating something that could stand apart while being unmistakably Canadian.

Six Wines Launch a New Category

What makes Fracette particularly interesting is that this isn’t the launch of one proprietary product.

Three Canadian wine companies have collaborated on the category, with six VQA Ontario sparkling wines launching simultaneously:

• Inniskillin Fracette Rosé
• Peller Estates Private Reserve Fracette Brut Rosé Sparkling Wine
• Henry of Pelham Fracette Sparkling Rosé
• Thirty Bench Fracette Brut
• Saintly Fracette
• Kew Vineyards Fracette

That breadth matters. Fracette establishes a common winemaking framework while giving individual producers considerable freedom to interpret it through different varieties, terroirs and house styles.

The three Arterra wines I discussed with Smith demonstrate that diversity particularly well.

Saintly Fracette occupies the bright, approachable end of the spectrum, fresh, vibrant and fruit-forward. At $23.95, it’s deliberately positioned as an accessible entry point to the category.

Kew Vineyards, on Niagara’s Twenty Mile Bench, takes a more refined approach. Its Fracette finishes at only around 3 g/L residual sugar, demonstrating just how dry a sparkling wine made using Icewine can be.

Perhaps most intriguing is Inniskillin Fracette Rosé. Given Inniskillin’s historic association with Canadian Icewine, its participation feels particularly appropriate. The wine uses Cabernet Franc for both its base wine and Icewine component, producing a pink sparkling wine with strawberry and raspberry fruit, concentration and an attractive mousse.

A New Role for Icewine

For me, this may be the most interesting part of the Fracette story.

For decades, we’ve largely thought about Icewine as a finished product, a luxurious, intensely concentrated sweet wine served in small glasses, often at the end of a meal.

Fracette asks us to think about Icewine differently.

Here it becomes part of the winemaking process itself. Its concentrated sugars fuel the secondary fermentation, while its character can contribute another dimension to a wine designed to finish crisp, refreshing and decidedly sparkling.

There’s also considerable potential for future experimentation. Different base wines, varieties and Icewine components could produce dramatically different expressions while still adhering to the defining Fracette technique.

And perhaps that’s where the concept becomes most compelling.

Ontario’s cool climate gives us the acidity required for excellent sparkling wine. Our winters give us the conditions necessary to produce authentic VQA Icewine. Fracette brings those two climatic advantages together in the same bottle.

Rather than asking how closely Ontario can reproduce the sparkling wines of somewhere else, Fracette asks a more interesting question:

What can we create that is uniquely our own?

Six wines from three Canadian producers are providing the first answers.

Fracette is sparkling wine, on Canadian terms, and quite literally, sparked by ice.

I’m keen to see this category of sparking wine grow and understand the benefits and unique characteristics that it can bring to this category of wine that is growing with strong interest year after year. I invite you to try some Fracette and see for yourself just how great it can be!

Cheers,

Matt