With COVID seeming to be lessening its grip, life as we used to know it is once again beginning to slowly return. Part of that are the various wine competitions.  The 40^th edition of the All Canadian Wine Championships was held from July 6^th to 8^th.  In total, 208 wineries submitted 1,327 wines to assess.

Assessments and awards were based as follows:

Trophies : “All Canadian Best Wines of the Year”

All wines are judged using the 100-point system. Trophies are awarded for each of the following categories:

• Best Red table wine
• Best White table wine
• Best Dessert wine
• Best Sparkling wine
• Best Fruit wine

The award for Best Red Wine of the Year went to BC’s Dark Horse Vineyard for their 2016 Red Meritage ($60.00).

The Best White Wine of the Year was the 2020 Gewürztraminer ($20.69) from BC’s Wild Goose Vineyards and Winery.          

The Best Dessert Wine of the Year went to Ontario’s Peller Estates Winery for their 2019 Andrew Peller Signature Series Riesling Icewine ($89.85).

BC’s Forbidden Fruit Winery won the Best Fruit Wine of the Year award for their 2020 Flaunt Organic Sparkling Plum ($22.00).

Finally the Best Sparkling Wine of the Year award went to BC’s Gray Monk Estate Winery for their 2018 Odyssey Rose Brut ($29.90).

Double Gold medals / Best of Category were awarded to the single highest rated wine (using an average of the aggregate judges’ scores) from each of the categories. These wines were all submitted for the Trophy round.

Medals of Merit: Gold, Silver, Bronze were awarded in the following manner:

• Gold awards were awarded to those wines scoring in the top 10 percentile.
• Silver awards of merit were issued to those wines scoring in the second 10 percentile.
• Bronze awards of merit were given to those wines scoring in the third 10 percentile.

The overall results by province were as follows:

• BC          4 Trophies / 29 Double Gold / 81 Gold / 75 Silver / 88 Bronze (759 entries)
• ON         2 Trophies / 22 Double Gold / 38 Gold / 50 Silver / 40 Bronze  (465 entries)
• QC          1 Double Gold / 7 Gold / 6 Silver / 4 Bronze (57 entries)
• NS          3 Gold / 2 Bronze  ( 14 entries)
• NB          1 Double Gold / 1 Gold / 5 Bronze (23 entries)
• PEI         1 Double Gold / 3 Silver /  1 Bronze   (10 entries)
• AB          3 Double Gold / 2 Gold / 1 Silver (11 entries)
• MB          1 Double Gold (4 entries)
• SK           1 Double Gold / 1 Gold / 3 Silver / 3 Bronze (18 entries)
• Yukon     0 (4 entries)

All of the results are available at https://allcanadianwinechampionships.com/acwc-2021-results/

With the All Canadian Wine Awards completed, I look forward to the National Wine Awards that were deferred until the fall.

Sláinte mhaith