Results of the 2025 National Wine Awards of Canada
The 2025 National Wine Awards of Canada wrapped up in June in Penticton, British Columbia. Founded by Canadian wine nuts David Lawrason and Anthony Gismondi, ‘The Nationals’ are the largest and most respected Canadian wine competition.
This year 22 judges tasted approximately 1,700 entries from almost 250 wineries. The entries came from six provinces. British Columbia had the highest representation with 138 wineries entered, Ontario came second with 81, followed by wineries from Quebec, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
“This year, the National Wine Awards of Canada celebrates a quarter-century of our once-a-year “snapshot” of Canadian wines. We are proud to have shone a light on the developing Canadian wine scene, especially in its formative years when it needed a voice to help tell its story. Having an annual benchmarking of Canadian wines judged at that highest level by Canadians has been a privilege and a dream come true as founders.
From the beginning, the goal was to create a level playing field for all Canadian producers to compete against their peers from across the country that would inform them of their progress and, more importantly, share that information with consumers. This has been done with core values and procedures that have ensured a guarantee of fairness and objectivity in the true sense of those words.
The short story is that the wines are tasted blind in flights organized by style/grape categories, while a computer-activated shuffle determines the order of the wines in the flight. We often tell judges that the first wine of the first day could be the best wine of the year, so it’s game on from the start to the finish. The top-scoring 25-27 percent of the wines are tasted twice by a minimum of eight judges, and the results are professionally analyzed and comprehensively reported online at WineAlign for the world.
We have alternated the annual tastings between British Columbia and Ontario wine country, including stops in Nova Scotia. We have sought to create a roster of primarily Canadian judges with global wine credentials sprinkled with a handful of international wine personalities with strong judging resumés. Our judges come to us from various wine paths, including writers, sommeliers and retailers.
Over the years, we have worked with an army of volunteers who have tirelessly worked to meet a standard that assures a calm and quiet tasting room where wines are presented to a precise level and temperature, removing any obstacles to a perfect-tasting environment. Behind the scenes, the fact-checking goes on for five days, and every entry is checked several times to ensure its provenance.
Our first awards occurred in June 2001, in a loft on the top floor of Toronto’s Royal York Hotel. We had about 500 entries and used eight judges. They were called the Canadian Wine Awards then and ran under the auspices of Wine Access Magazine for the first dozen years. During that period, the number of entries and judges more than tripled, corresponding to the rapid growth of the Canadian wine industry itself. In 2013, Wine Access Magazine ceased publication, and the Awards were reconstituted as the National Wine Awards of Canada under the ownership of WineAlign but run by the same team since its inception. The last dozen years have continued to grow, with increasing sophistication, including fail-safe electronic scoring. The pandemic interrupted the run in 2020, but WineAlign published a Canadian Wine Buyers Guide based on the hundreds of samples sent to the office in Toronto. In 2021 and 2022, we resumed judging with Covid protocols in place and last year, 24 judges tasted 1,800+ entries from 230 wineries.
The 2025 Nationals returned to the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre in British Columbia. We want to thank the hundreds, maybe even thousands, who have been a part of the Awards, from our family of talented judges and tireless background volunteers to the wineries who have supported this endeavour by entering wines and everyone who has helped with shipping, warehousing and preparing the venues. It has been a labour of love for 25 years, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. In a year in which our sovereignty has been challenged, the awards should have an extra meaning for all of us in Canada. Look for the results in mid-July.” – Co-founders Anthony Gismondi and David Lawrason
We’d like to thank the judges for bringing their talent, skill and passion to the process. We know there is nowhere they would rather be that week, but it is still a formidable task that requires endurance and concentration. It also requires a wealth of tasting experience accumulated over years of tasting wines from around the globe that informs virtually every decision they make. You don’t just walk into the job, although many ask if they can.
In addition to the individual medal winners, we have also awarded Winery of the Year, Best Performing Small Winery, Top 25 Wineries in Canada, Top 10 Ontario Wineries, Top 10 BC Wineries, and Top 10 Small Wineries.
You can also review the Medal Winners by Category presented in alphabetical order (see below). Each medal winning wine is linked to its individual page on WineAlign. Platinum, Gold and Silver wines will also have reviews from individual judges.
Click on the medallions to see the winners:
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Medal Winners by Category:
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Sauvignon
Chardonnay
Cider
Fortified
Fruit Wine
Gamay
Gewurztraminer
Icewine & Late Harvest
Library Wines
Malbec
Mead and Other Non-fruit
Merlot
Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio
Pinot Noir
Red Blends
Red Single Varieties – Others
Riesling
Rosé
Sauvignon Blanc
Skin Fermented White (Orange Wines)
Sparkling
Syrah
Viognier
White Single Varieties – Others
White Blends
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