The Nationals

I ask myself this loaded question as I pore over the results of the 2015 WineAlign National Wine Awards. Now fifteen years after David Lawrason and I began the awards, it would appear the answer is as many times as it takes to tell the story. Given the breakneck pace with which the domestic wine industry is accelerating, I have to admit it’s getting easier. Add to that a growing pool of talented tasters who can discern the nuances that make Canadian wine different, and relevant, and an industry that cares enough to be measured annually (in 2015 to the tune of 1400+ entries, 8 months of prep, 205 wineries, 18 judges and thousands of hours), well you have some very meaningful results.

I’m always amazed at the attention domestic wineries afford foreign accolades and medals given the relative low number of entries in a broad Canadian category and the mix of judges, nearly all of whom would be unfamiliar with Canadian wine or tasting them for the first time. You don’t get that variation at The Nationals. With categories of 50 to 100 entries it is difficult enough to win your flight, let alone return and beat the best of the best.

But find the best of the best we did. A meagre 1 percent of the entries earned Platinum Medals, only 14 wines. Medals were also judiciously and carefully awarded to Gold, Silver and high Bronze scoring wines, a spread of impressive wines that reached from coast to coast, literally. 

Over the years the Best Winery in Canada has brought a great deal of attention and stature to the winning winery. It’s highly coveted by Canada’s most competitive wineries and frankly in a country with over 500 producers any winery getting into the top 25 as a result of its performance at The Nationals really should be tooting its horn. It’s a very a significant achievement.

For the record, our performance report rates any winery entering five or more wines in the competition, automatically entering that producer into the race for the WineAlign Canadian Winery of the Year. While the report was originally designed to help us assess each winery’s performance in the competition, the results are so compelling we now share Canada’s top 25 wineries to help you make better buying decisions.

From a practical point of view, we know consumers are interested in a winery’s top wines, so the final calculation is done by selecting the wineries’ five top scoring entries. It also means large wineries entering 10 or 20 wines have no special advantage over smaller boutiques, since only five wines are used to calculate any single performance ranking. That said, in 2015 we recognised the country’s smaller producers, including our inaugural Best Performing Small Winery, using the same criteria but limiting the list to those who produce 10,000 cases or less.

What it all comes down to is one of the most useful wine buying lists in the country, and a true guide to which wines and wineries are performing at the very top of the Canadian wine industry.

Congratulations to Mission Hill Estate Winery, coming out ahead to earn the coveted Winery of the Year honours, and to Thirty Bench Wine Makers for earning the title of Best Performing Small Winery. 

Over the coming months we will break down the results and data here on GOW into useful blocks that you can use for your buying, cellaring and drinking needs.