With more than 15 years in the wine making industry, Rivard is an experienced and award winning winemaker, author and founding director of the Fruit Wines of Canada Association. 

Born in Quebec, Rivard comes from a heritage of farmers and entrepreneurs. After becoming a qualified sommelier, he studied winemaking and oenology at University of California – Davis, undertook and passed the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) diploma with distinctions and is now studying towards the prestigious Master of Wine accreditation. Awards include best desert wine in Canada in 2007 and best wine of B.C. in 2008.

Over the past decade, Rivard has been busy running numerous wine production and exportation projects for wineries in Canada, the U.S., Italy, Spain, Chile, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and China. He specializes in fruit wine, dessert wine and ice wine production and is known in wine industry circles as an authority in fruit wine making.

“Nova Scotia is my chosen home”, states Rivard. “The opportunity to make a positive impact in the burgeoning Nova Scotia wine industry and working with Pete Luckett and his team to make that happen is an honour for me”.

Luckett emphasizes the focus at Luckett Vineyards is on producing the highest quality wines.

“We are delighted to attract someone of Dominic’s calibre and we are confident that under his leadership our wines will continue to improve,” he said.