Results from the 2026 Nationals – White Blends
Announcing the Results from the 2026 National Wine Awards of Canada
The 2026 Nationals took place in Niagara, Ontario from June 12th to 18th. Today, we are pleased to announce the winners in the White the and Red Blend categories. Category results will be rolling out throughout the rest of July, concluding with the Winery of the Year announcement on July 31st. We hope that you will stay tuned to follow the results!
White Blends
Category Overview by Janet Dorozynski, PhD, DipWSET
Canadian White Blends: Intentional Blending Expertise Delivers Outstanding Results
White blends remain one of the most imaginative categories in Canadian wine, giving winemakers the freedom to combine varieties and create levels of complexity that no single grape can achieve on its own. This year, the White Blends category attracted 77 entries, resulting in one Platinum, seven Gold, 17 Silver, and 29 Bronze medals. This represents an impressive 70.1% medal success rate. While white blends accounted for 4.6% of all competition entries, they earned 4.3% of the total medals awarded. The strong medal performance suggests the category is not only thriving but continuing to evolve into one of Canada’s most exciting sources of innovation and quality.
British Columbia has long been a pioneer in white blends, with many of Canada’s earliest and most successful Bordeaux- and Rhône-inspired wines emerging from the Okanagan Valley. There, and increasingly in Ontario, winemakers have access to a broad palette of Rhône and Bordeaux varieties, including Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne, Sauvignon Blanc, and Sémillon, alongside smaller plantings of distinctive Spanish varieties such as Verdejo and Albariño. Both regions offer the climatic diversity needed to craft blends that balance aromatics, texture, and freshness.
Quebec and Nova Scotia have also developed distinctive approaches to white blends. Quebec wineries are producing intriguing wines from cold-hardy hybrid grapes, either on their own or blended with vitis vinifera varieties. Nova Scotia’s creation of the provincially specific white blend Tidal Bay is included here as well.
And the winners are…
Roche Wines 2023 Viognier Marsanne, Okanagan Valley, BC
NWAC 2026 Partners:
