An Indigenous entrepreneur is leading the way in introducing a unique product, Lambrusco, a sparkling red wine, to the Canadian market. In 2020, Moirae Choquette was granted a scholarship in the Airbnb Scholarship Program to visit Italy and spend seven days cooking with chef David Chang at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy.
Although this experience was canceled due to the pandemic, it gave her the confidence to launch her own company, called Tomato Wheels. Tomato Wheels designs wine in partnership with renowned vineyards. The first product they are introducing to the Canadian market is a Lambrusco. Lambrusco is not well known outside of Italy, similar to how champagne comes from Champagne, France—Lambrusco comes from Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
Tomato Wheels Lambrusco is an aromatic sparkling red wine made from grape skin contact, giving it a beautiful deep lush purple. It brims with violet, cold blueberries and lavender—with cheek gushing acidity, and a little rip of tannin. Increasing in popularity, it is also a low ABV (alcohol by volume) wine, making it even more desirable.
Moirae discovered Lambrusco in 2015 while visiting Italy and has since been an advocate and fan, due to the low ABV. “I love lambrusco, but the selection in Canada is limited, so we decided to produce our own. We worked with Sommelier Brad Royale to go directly to the source—Emilia Romagna, Italy. We found a fourth generation, family owned and operated vineyard, that has been producing Lambrusco since 1925 (if they don’t know what’s good, who does?)—and 10 months later our beautiful collaboration, Tomato Wheels Lambrusco, was bottled,” says Founder, Moirae Choquette.
Website: https://www.tomatowheels.com/
