Moderator of the i4C 2026 School of Cool: Session 3

Peter Gamble, a lifetime wine industry professional whose career has encompassed roles as a distinguished professional winemaker and consultant, an internationally recognized wine taster and judge, and the founding Executive Director of the VQA, has long worked alongside Canada’s most passionate winemakers to achieve greater heights with our finest appellation wines.

Since 2000, Peter’s company has been dedicated to prestige wineries in their start-up phase, providing expertise in a range of areas critical to the successful establishment of ultra-premium winemaking operations. Along with international work, Peter has been the lead consultant in significant Canadian projects including, in Niagara, Stratus, Ravine, Cloudsley, On Seven and Stonebridge; and in Nova Scotia, Benjamin Bridge Vineyards and Lightfoot & Wolfville Vineyards.

With the purchase of a top-flight ancient Malbec planting in Mendoza, Argentina, in 2008, and the opening of Sperling Vineyards winery in the Okanagan, Peter and his winemaker wife, Ann Sperling, broadened their company’s winemaking activities. But Niagara remains their cherished home base, and among other prestigious winery start-ups here, including York Vineyards, Kirby Estate and the revitalization of Lailey Vineyard winery, Gamble turned his attention to the vineyard development and winemaking launch of Dobbin Estate on Niagara’s Twenty Mile Bench.

Notable awards for Gamble over the years include the inaugural Tony Aspler Award for contributions to the Ontario wine industry and, in 2019, the inaugural Karl Kaiser Winemaker Emeritus Award for Outstanding Services to the Canadian Wine Industry.

Most recently, Gamble was delighted that the first vintage of wines made at Dobbin Estate earned them the distinction of “The Most Thrilling White Wine of 2023” in the highly respected year-end report by Wines in Niagara wine journalist Rick VanSickle.