Results from the 2026 Nationals – Chardonnay
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 Gamay, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay 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!
Chardonnay
Category Overview by Michael Godel
The roll out of our National Wine Awards category medalists has always seemed to coincide with Niagara’s i4C, the Cool Climate Chardonnay Conference. David penned some pre-conference words here, and the WineAlign judges fully commit to recognizing Canada’s most planted and celebrated white grape variety. It is certainly the original in Ontario, having first been planted in the early 1950s in Charles Sigel’s experimental Parkdale Wines vineyard, now owned by the Franciosa Family, and called Grimsby Hillside Vineyard. The plant material likely migrated over to the Lenko farm and that 1958 planting was the first to make commercial chardonnay. As for British Columbia, it is believed that 1973 was the first year, on the Golden Mile Bench in the South Okanagan, now owned by Checkmate Artisanal Winery, part of the von Mandl Family Estate.
Canadian chardonnay no longer needs to, and for the most part has given up on emulating something else. Canadian chardonnay now shows up on great wine lists in New York, Paris and London, this because it has its own voice. “When people think cool climate, they think of Canada,” are the words of Canada’s Best Sommelier (in 2006 and 2012), Véronique Rivest. “Perhaps cool climate is as much about character as it is about weather, and it’s almost always shaped by water.” The cool climate specialist chardonnay has now become the great white hope in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and also Québec. To foresee and then to consummate this collective pursuit of excellence continues to inscribe cool chardonnay into the lexicon of great wine forever. Producers from coast to coast continue to delve deeper still, to deliver the coolest quality and finest balance for a grape variety responsible for socialization, and revelry. Chardonnay is cool as ever, always gotta be cool, to relax and never be too cool for school.
At the 2026 NWACs, there were 5 Platinums awarded. Tops in the field. One in 4 Platinums were given to chardonnay, 3 from Ontario and two from B.C. Also 22 Gold, 41 Silver and 53 Bronze. That’s 121 of 155 entries, or just a shade less than 80 percent. Tops in entries at 9.2 and also medals, at 9.7 percent. What else needs to be said?
And the winners are…
NWAC 2026 Partners:
