Results from the 2025 Nationals – Other Single White Varieties

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 Other Single Red Varieties, Other Single White Varieties, Gewürztraminer, Viognier, and Malbec 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!

Other Single White Varieties

Category Overview by Judge Sara d’Amato

Go straight to the winners.

Other Single White Varieties? This category may sound like a catch-all, but don’t let the name fool you. These aren’t lesser grapes—they’re the intriguing outliers, the bold newcomers, or the climate-defying mavericks. Whether they’re rarely grown in Canada, just starting to gain traction, or planted as part of an experimental vision, these whites lacked enough entries to merit a category of their own, but they certainly made their mark. In 2025, 19 medals were awarded in this eclectic field.

Only two varieties struck gold this year: pinot blanc and chenin blanc – neither of which are particularly rare on the global stage, but in Canada, they remain under-the-radar players. Pinot blanc can often be a tough sell, overshadowed by flashier counterparts, while chenin blanc struggles with Canada’s winter chill. Yet when done right, as this year’s gold medals prove, they shine nobly. The Gold medal winning Lake Breeze Okanagan 2024 Pinot Blanc is a testament to the Naramata subregion that for the most part, weathered the freezes better than most, likely due to its diverse soils, west-facing slopes and the moderating influence of the Okanagan Lake. Coaxing a great deal of character from this grape may have been helped by a lower yielding vintage. Pinot blanc made an appearance in the silver and bronze tiers: a 2023 barrel aged style from Okanagan’s Apara Winery and Niagara’s Konzelmann’s 2024 Lakefront Series—the moral being that this variety is not one that should be easily dismissed in Canada.

Chenin Blanc made a double splash in the medals with a gold for Da Silva’s 2023 Hidden Hollow Vineyard bottling—another Naramata gem. In these low yielding, frost-bitten vintages, there may be a silver lining: whites with striking concentration and depth. The silver medal went to Red Barn’s 2023 Stand Apart from Okanagan Valley—an aptly named wine that stood out for its richness and charm.

Other than grüner veltliner, which received both a silver and bronze medal by Peak Cellars Okanagan Lake Country’s 2023, and Fort Berens’ 2024 Small Lot Red Rock Vineyard in Lillooet, respectively, a truly unique mosaic of coast-to-coast-grown white varieties were acknowledged by our collective of judges including melon de bourgogne from Prince Edward County in Ontario, Saint-Pépin from Québec, ortega from Vancouver Island, bacchus and petite milo from Frasier Valley in the Okanagan, roussanne and sovereign opal from the Okanagan. If some of these locally grown grapes sound like they belong on another continent, don’t worry, you’re not alone. To help you decode these award-winning curiosities, I’ve included a snappy little glossary below. Who knows? You might just discover your next favourite white in the process.

Bacchus: A 20^th German century crossing of sylvaner, riesling, and müller-thurgau. Often lively and generously aromatic with herbal, citrus and floral characteristics, sometimes compared to sauvignon blanc with a touch less acidity.

Melon de Bourgogne: Often called “Melon B” or simply “Melon” in its benchmark region of the far western Loire Valley of France (as it is now a rarity in Burgundy), this is a vinifera variety is most commonly used to produce Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, sometimes aged on its lees to give volume to its delicate profile and notable age-ability. Its small, tight grape bunches ripen best on clay and pebbly soils producing citrus, floral and honeyed notes with greater complexity as its best examples age.

Saint-Pépin: A French-hybrid variety created by Elmer Swenson in 1971 in Wisconsin that arrived in Québec in 1987 and shows notable promise. A relatively hardy grape, it is made in dry, sweet, and sparkling styles. It often produces floral wines with tree fruit and moderate acidity.

Ortega: A flagship grape for Vancouver Island’s coastal climate, ortega is also found in the northern Okanagan, Frasier Valley, and in Nova Scotia. Created in 1948 from a German crossing of Müller-Thurgau and Siegerrebe for the Pfalz and Mosel growing regions, this earlier ripening grape is floral, capable of producing high sugar levels (which translates to fuller-bodied dry styles) and moderate acidity.

Petit(e) Milo: A white grape with a pinkish skin, it is a complex French American-Asian hybrid, one of whose parent’s is cabernet sauvignon created in Switzerland by Valentin Blattner. This early ripening variety is grown notably in Nova Scotia but also on Vancouver Island and in the Frasier Valley. It often produces full-ish wines with firm acidity and flavours that range from stone fruit to tropical fruit.

Sovereign Opal: A rare, hardy, lightly pink-skinned, white hybrid grape variety that is a result of a crossing of golden muscat and marechal foch by Lyall Denby at the Summerland Research Station in BC, trialed in 1976—now made almost exclusively at Sandhill Wines in the Okanagan Valley and grown by Kelowna’s Casorso family.

And the winners are…