Wine beyond the LCBO – Wines by Brent comes to Frontenac County

Jeff Green | Feb 22, 2023

Brent Fehr and his wife Isabel moved to an off-grid log home, on the Arden Road about halfway between Arden and Tamworth, in 2021.

It was a big change for the couple, who were living in the Little Portugal region of downtown Toronto before moving out to the wilds of Frontenac County.

“I think the pandemic helped us to see our future more clearly,” he said of the decision that they made to trade in their urban reality for a life in the country; complete with ducks and chickens, wood stoves and solar panels.

But it was not the first radical change that Fehr had made in his life. In 2019, he changed careers. He had been selling mutual funds on Bay Street in Toronto, something had done in Ottawa before that, but he decided to pursue a new career in the wine industry. As a lover of fine food and wine, a passion he shares with Isabel, he found a niche in the wine business curating the wine lists for restaurants by seeking out wines from smaller vinyards around the world.

“There are hundreds of wine agents in Canada, and while the large vineyards that the might represent will sell large quantities of brand name wines to the LCBO in Ontario, the smaller second or third generation family wineries don't produce in the kind of volume that the LCBO is looking for, even in the Vintages section.

“And restaurants are happy to offer wines that their customers that they cannot find in the local liquor store,” he said.

In March of 2020, selling wine to restaurants ceased to be a viable business model, for obvious reasons, so Brent began to emphasize another aspect of his business, providing curated full and mixed cases (12 bottles to a case) for friends and acquaintances who subscribed to his mailing list.

At the same time, Isabel was scanning the real estate websites for a rural property where the couple could move to for the next stage of their lives.

“Isabel works in the film industry, and is a visual artist, and over the pandemic she was working mostly from home, and my business is portable as well, so we did not have to be based in Toronto,” he said.

When they found their place in Frontenac County, they took the leap.

While Brent has maintained his clientele in Toronto, and in Ottawa as well, he has also started holding intimate wine classes in the local communities.

He meets with small groups, and over a 90-120 minute 'course' he introduces them to 5 different wines.

He has run a number of sessions in Napanee over the past year, and last weekend he did his first event in Sharbot Lake, after being contacted by Greg and Arlette Rodgers of the Rock Hill B&B he held a course called French Wine Basics last Saturday (Feb. 18).

The workshop was designed with at least two, related, purposes in mind: to provide an introduction to the variety of flavours and textures that make up the French wine universe, and to introduce some of the wines that are available through Wine by Brent.

“For me, the classes are a great opportunity to meet a new community of people,” he said.

The first thing he did in this class was to ask the 7 people in the room about their wine tastes, and what they already knew about French wine.

“At the end of the first class that I held I asked people for their critique and the first thing they said was that I talked too much before bringing out any wine, o I don't do that anymore,” he said.

The first wine was a B. Francois Brut Blanc de Blancs, a sparkling wine from the Vouvray region in the Loire Valley. As the participants sipped, Brent talked about the terrain, grapes, and winemaking styles in the region, went over the tasting notes from the wine maker, and asked if people liked the wine, and why.

The same pattern was followed for the second wine, a white wine, Château Carbonneau Margot 2020 Sauvignon Blanc from the Bordeaux region.

Then, three reds were sampled, a lighter bodied red from the Southwest, a lesser known region, Domaine Laurens 2020 Pierres Rouges, which is made from Mansois grapes. This was followed by a Dom Brial Les Petits Pins AOP Côtes du Roussillon 2020 from the Langudoc-Rousillon region, and finally a red from Bordeaux, Château Nicoleau Côtes de Bourg 2018.

While the red Bordeaux was the most popular wine at the table, discussions about food pairings, time of day, the company around the table, brought out how different wines can be appreciated in different circumstances.

Because none of the wines that were sampled are available at the LCBO, or ever will be, the tasting also show how the scale of the LCBO selling model in Ontario limits the wine workd to only the most popular, large wineries.

“It is similar, in many ways, to the difference between Craft Beer and Mass Market beer,” he said.

As a wine merchant, Bent Fehr can only sell wine by the case of 12 to customers, but he is able to put together mixed cases.

Each month or so, he has a different mixed case available. The most recent mixed case, which is being shipped this week, included the three reds that were sampled at Rock Hill B&B, as well as a different white wine.

“The wines we sampled today are all priced comparably to wines at the LCBO, in the $17-$22 dollar range,” he said. “My prices do not include hst, whereas hst is included in the LCBO price.”

The Apres Ski mixed case costs $349, plus $20 shipping, including, which works out to about $25 a bottle.

A new mixed case, spring themed, will be available next month.

Brent Fehr has also put out a short primer, 23 wine tips for 2023, which includes a number of helpful hints, including the handy advice to always keep some sparkling wine, and some Rosé, on hand, throughout the year, and to open two bottles of wine when company is around in order to compare and contrasts tastes.

For further information about Wine by Brent, and to get on the email list for mixed cases and workshops in your neck of the woods, email wine This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or go to @wineybrent on Instagram.