National Wine Awards of Canada

The WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada (NWAC), the country’s largest competition of Canadian wines, is held annually in mid to late June. Each year, somewhere in Canadian wine country, co-founders Anthony Gismondi and David Lawrason assemble Canada’s leading wine writers, trade buyers and sommeliers to evaluate the current crop of 100 percent Canadian grown and made wines and ciders.

In 2018, over 1,850 wines from 257 wineries were entered into the National Wine Awards of Canada, making this year’s awards the largest and most comprehensive wine competition in Canadian history. In late June, 22 judges assembled in Penticton BC and tasted blind for five full days to determine the best wines in Canada. Wines were tasted blind in limited numbers in multiple rounds based on category or style. Top medal winners survived multiple elimination rounds and only 42% of all wines entered were awarded medals.