Agricultural house Joy Hill is getting hold of Club Kombucha which, as its name suggests, produces Kombucha, but whose range will soon be extended, the new owners announce.
“We are going to launch an electrolyte drink, ready to drink, in a can,” says Justine Therrien, co -owner of Joy Hill. It’s going to be called Electro Club. A version in sachets will follow this expansion of products.
Club Kombucha was founded by Claudie Gravel-Niquitt, who decided to sell her business for personal reasons. She is the sister of Julien Niquet, second owner of the agricultural house Joy Hill.
“As we were already involved in Club Kombucha from the very beginning as silent shareholders, taking up the torch today appeared to us as a natural sequence, imprint of meaning and ambition,” said Joy Hill in the press release announcing the transaction.
The winegrowers are thus part of the movement of alcohol producers who add drinks that do not contain their wallets.
If it confirms that diversification is important in this era where people drink less alcohol, Justine Therrien specifies that it is not the main reason that motivated this acquisition.
After nine years in this vineyard, the couple of entrepreneurs wanted a new challenge, different. “When the opportunity arose, it was natural that it is taken,” says Justine Therrien in an interview.
The need to have an independent production of weather vagaries has also tipped the scale.
“We think of ways to diversify our activity so as not to be exclusively dependent on what nature will give us,” says Justine Therrien. In 2023, the winemakers had lost practically 50 % of their grapes, following an episode of frost.
Photo Alain Roberge, La Presse Archives
The Joy Hill vineyard, on the coast of the same name, now has 37,000 vines. Eight of his wines are now sold in the SAQ network.
Maison Joy Hill produces wines in its name, but also added the pastoral range last year, presented as “trading wines” made with Quebec grapes purchased.
Quebec regulations allow winegrowers to buy grapes (Quebecois) to make their wines, as much as possible the equivalent of the quantity of grapes they produce themselves. Joy Hill divided this permission: the wines that carry the Joy Hill label are made entirely with the grapes of the house; those of pastoral, entirely of grapes.
The first Quebec viniers
The house is not lacking in projects: it tried the shot of the vinier this year, with three of its 2024 vintages. The four -liter formats quickly flew away and the Frelighsburg vineyard will redo viniers in greater quantity with the 2025 cuvée.
At the start, the idea was to make some viniers for the vineyard store, where tastings are very unequal and leave several bottle funds. “We was wasy a lot of wine at the end of the day,” explains Justine Therrien.
Photo provided by Joy Hill
The Vinier Cuvée 2024 was a kind of test. The next version of the Viniers will be entitled to more elaborate packaging.
The company therefore rented a machine to make 225 pockets of wine. However, restaurants have shown interest: an open vinier keeps wine around six weeks and preserves it from oxygen. The packaging in “bag and box” is gaining popularity, because its consumer leaves a less important environmental footprint. “We have a reduction of 80 % greenhouse gases,” calculates Justine Therrien. And the viniers are getting rid of this reputation that they are only good for low -end wines.
The agricultural house Joy Hill finally decided to offer the format on its site, for individuals, at $ 98 or $ 108, depending on the cuvée. Result: the viniers all gave themselves up.