Results from the 2025 Nationals – Viognier

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, Gewurztraminer, 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!

Viognier

Category Overview by Judge Michael Godel

Go straight to the winners.

Just 19 varietal viognier were submitted to the 2025 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada, the smallest number in recent memory, owing to several crucial criteria. Grape varieties like syrah, merlot and sauvignon blanc come to mind for those that suffer the when extreme climate events such as a winter polar vortex or negative 30 degree cold snaps strike Canadian vineyards. Count viognier as one having been similarly and unfairly susceptible to the early 2024 deep freeze in the Okanagan Valley which resulted in near absolute crop casualty. Lower viognier submissions were due to the lack of available fruit and also derivative winemaking choices to blend the grape into blends where it could help raise the overall profile of wines. This would have included varieties like marsanne and roussanne and co-ferments with syrah, but also kitchen sink jumbles in which the viognier can raise the overall aromatic profile. Many top viognier examples normally submitted to NWACs were not present at the 2025 competition, resulting in an overall lesser number of entries and lowering the annual ceiling for the category.

On the bright side, 11 of 19 wines tendered to the Awards were awarded medals as two Golds, five Silver and four Bronze. Unsurprisingly the two Gold winners were both from Ontario, the 13th Street Winery 2023 Viognier, VQA Niagara Peninsula and Marynissen Estates 2023 Heritage Viognier Stouck Vineyard, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore. In fact seven of the 11 winners were from Ontario, this compared to British Columbia wineries taking home 70 percent of the hardware in 2024. In 2025 four of five Silver medallists were also from Ontario with the lone success story being Rainmaker Wines 2022 Viognier The Changemaker, VQA British Columbia. Ontario’s Silver were presented to Stratus 2023 Viognier, VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake, Meldville Derek Barnett 2023 Viognier, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore, Malivoire 2024 Stouck Viognier, VQA Lincoln Lakeshore and Stonebridge 2023 Viognier Stonebridge Vineyard, VQA Four Mile Creek.

Canadian winemakers really do love working with viognier because of its ties to the northern Rhône that place it high on a shortlist of exceptional grape varieties made in some of the world’s most important and revered vineyards. When makers get it right (and sometimes lucky) Canadian examples unearth viognier’s exotic aromatic spicing, metallic undertones, oily glück and unctuous, at times creamy textures. These attributes add up to wines as romantic as an evening stroll down the Champs-Elysées. The variety may not be everyone’s cup of white tea and there are many more misses than hits because frankly, it ain’t easy to make great viognier. Even in France the greats can be counted on just two or slightly more sets of hands. When viognier hits there is this je ne sais quoi magic and that is why it holds such great appeal. Here is to hoping it will find a revival out of Canadian vineyards before too long.

Good to go!

godello

And the winners are…