Results from the 2024 Nationals – Cider and Ice Cider

Announcing the Results from the 2024 National Wine Awards of Canada

The 2024 Nationals took place in Niagara Falls from June 21st to 25th. Today, we are pleased to announce the winners in the cider and ice cider category. 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 at the end of the month. We hope that you will stay tuned to follow the results!

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

Cider and Ice Cider

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

While cider making in Canada historically dates back to the tradition introduced by early settler groups, production has grown exponentially over the past few decades. At the turn of this century, there were only several dozen cider producers, located largely in Quebec, but the industry and grown to over 400 cideries across Canada that are located in all provinces and all but one territory. We don’t get very many cider entries at the National Wine Awards of Canada, just over one per cent of all entries, and certainly would love to see more!

This year’s entries consisted of still and sparkling ciders, both sweet and dry, and came primarily from Ontario, British Columbia and Atlantic Canada. Most were from apples, with a few from pear (which is known as perry) and were made from both traditional cider apples, as well as from eating apples. There were less aromatized or flavoured ciders than in past years, which is a welcome change and allows the purity of apple goodness to shine through in the ciders.

The judges were impressed with long time favourites like those from Tawse and Thornbury from Ontario and were captivated by the charming aromas and flavours of the Annapolis Cider Company Heritage Series Geneva Crab Rosé, Nova Scotia made from the red-fleshed Geneva Red crabapple that was blended with Golden Hyslop crabapple juice. 

The only gold medal and Best Cider of the Year was awarded to Ontario’s Vieni Estates for Vieni Estates N/V Sparkling Apple Cider. Congratulations to Vieni and all of this year’s winners.

NWAC 2024 Sponsors: