Results from the 2023 Nationals – Sparkling

Announcing the Results from the 2023 National Wine Awards of Canada

The 22nd running of the National Wine Awards of Canada wrapped up on June 28 in Penticton. Category results will be rolling out throughout the rest of July, with the final Platinum, Best Performing Small Winery, and Winery of the Year announcements coming at the end of this month. We hope you will stay tuned to follow the results and become engaged in anticipating the final results.

We’ve asked a few of our judges to summarize their impressions of each category. Today we are pleased to present the Sparkling winners.

Sparkling Wine

Category Overview by Judge Janet Dorozynski, Ph.D., DipWSET

I remember being asked by a foreign journalist more than ten years ago what I thought was the most exciting and least-known style of Canadian wine. Without any hesitation I said sparkling wine. I continue to believe strongly it is a style we do well from coast to coast.

New and established Canadian wineries are making higher quality sparkling wine every year. The climate and shorter growing season in Quebec and Nova Scotia are two qualities particularly benefiting sparkling wine production but there is also very fine fizz coming from British Columbia and Ontario.

Great Canadian sparkling wines are made with vitis vinifera with a number are from hybrid varieties that make energetic and refined sparkling wine. Production is largely traditional bottle fermented and charmat/tank method, along with increasing amounts of frizzante (carbonation injection), no doubt made in the hopes of chasing that well-known Italian P wine.

The number of entries in the sparkling category increased from 147 in 2022 to 165 this year. The majority of entries were from B.C. and Ontario with a smattering from Quebec and Nova Scotia, the latter of which is making a name for itself internationally with Nova Scotia sparkling wines found on many a restaurant wine list in the U.K.

The judges awarded 30 gold and 34 silver and one Platinum medal to Megalomaniac, a strong showing for the category. I would also add that many of the medal winners are well priced — between $30 and $40 a bottle, with quality and excitement that beats many grand marque Champagne any day.

Cheers to seeing even more Canadian sparkling wine over the coming years and congratulations to all of this year’s winners.

NWAC 2023 Sponsors: