Results from the 2024 Nationals – Riesling

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 Riesling 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 Riesling winners.

Riesling

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

While riesling still has its detractors, and many of us are waiting for that long overdue riesling revolution, I personally think that Canada is riesling land, as we have so many great and quality examples from coast to coast. It is a variety that is the perfect vector to express the place where it is grown and also counts among some of Canada’s oldest planted vinifera varieties, with plantings dating back to the mid 1970’s and early 1980’s in Niagara and the Okanagan Valley. 

At this year’s National Wine Awards there were seventy-eight riesling medal winners, which was 8% of all NWAC medals. Riesling claimed 5.5% of platinum medals and 9.5% of golds with many of the big wins going to long time and dedicated producers like Henry of Pelham, Inniskillin and Thirty Bench from Ontario and Synchromesh and Tantalus from British Columbia. Most of the wines tend to be dry to off-dry with a ripeness and symphony of fruit combined with the juicy and racy acidity that makes riesling so compelling and food friendly.

The top scoring and platinum medal went to the Thirty Bench 2021 Small Lot Wood Post Vineyard Riesling, which is one of several single vineyard rieslings from this winery in Niagara’s Beamsville Bench sub-appellation. The wines are made by the talented winemaker Emma Garner from riesling vineyards that date back to 1980. 

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