Results from the 2025 Nationals – Red Blends

Announcing the Results from the 2025 National Wine Awards of Canada

The 2025 Nationals took place in Penticton from June 21st to 25th. Today, we are pleased to announce the winners in the White Blends and Red Blends categories. Category results will be rolling out throughout the rest of July, concluding with the Winery of the Year announcement on August 1st. We hope that you will stay tuned to follow the results!

Red Blends

Category Overview by Judge Michael Godel

Go straight to the winners.

Red Blends Come up Platinum

“Red Blends” is admittedly a very broad term to house a wide range of red wines produced from a seemingly endless permutation of varietal possibilities. The single most obvious, complex and successful organism in the idiom is the Bordeaux red blend for which typically two or three red grapes are assembled, led by cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot. There are times when petit verdot, malbec and in the rarest of instances also carmenère are involved in the mix. Next up in stature would be the Rhône blend, with grenache, syrah and mourvèdre (a.k.a. G-S-M) leading the ideal, less often and yet increasing in frequency with carignan, cinsault and even counoise joining in. The Aussies decided to mix syrah with the Bordeaux varieties for a distinctive style and in Spain the likes of graciano and mazuela (carignan) often join along with tempranillo.

Then there are the cross border Euro blends where the Bordeaux grapes align with native Spanish, Italian and many Eastern European native grape varieties. The practice of producing red blends in Canada is about as old as the industry itself and each region has their likes, loves, wishes and wants. Okanagan estates certainly emulate the Bordeaux model and are more likely to employ the Oz example, at times in more kitchen sink ways with a minimum five grapes in the mix. Ontario is more of a classic “Meritage” province and yet some seem bent on cancelling the term. What strange woke wine world business is this? AI offers an answer. “The term “Meritage” is not being cancelled, but its usage is evolving. While it was created to distinguish Bordeaux-style blends from specific grape varietal wines, it’s becoming less common on labels as winemakers opt for more specific varietal names or proprietary blends.” Who knew ChatGPT was so diplomatic? Also, someone please instruct AI on the proper usage of “variety” versus “varietal.”

Meritage is still a big deal in Canada with dozens of medal winners following that angle. Stylistically speaking, some of the most complex Canadian red blends are the equivalent or coalescence of two famous European attributes, they being the French garrigue and Italian macchia. Still others bring about a mix of merde Française and Italianate animale. In such cases tasters are split between the forces of complexity and flaws. Unwanted microbes are distractions, especially Brettanomyces which is not an accent upon the language of great wine. Canadian wine consumers are fortunate because their makers’ cellars are cleaner (and not nearly as old) as many Euro counterparts and to a winemaker, clean and technically sound wine is this country’s wine religion. Thank goodness for that.

You may want to sit down for the following results. There were 107 medals awarded to the category of Red Blends. There were 169 entries which means more than 63 per cent were medalists. Now for the truly astounding news. Six Platinum awards! In no particular order to The Organized Crime 2022 The Download, Beamsville Bench, Ontario; Black Hills 2023 Bona Fide, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia; Nomad at Hinterbrook Winery 2021 Wanderlust, Niagara Lakeshore, Ontario; Trius 2022 Grand Red, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario; Laughing Stock 2022 Blind Trust Red, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia; Palatine Hills Ramblers 2024 Schmoozer Cabernet-Merlot, Niagara Lakeshore, Ontario. The Schmoozer is $15.95! It used to be said that Red Blends “can” be awarded Platinum medals in wine competitions. That has certainly changed. The rest of the medals were split between Gold (26), Silver (41) and Bronze (34).

Good to go!

godello

And the winners are…