Results from the 2025 Nationals – Fruit Wine

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 Cider, Mead & Non-fruit, Fruit wine, Fortified, Icewine and Late Harvest 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!

Fruit Wine

Category Overview by Judge Janet Dorozynski, PhD, DipWSET

Go straight to the winners.

The fruit wine category is always interesting to judge since you can literally taste wines made from anything and anywhere in Canada. The usual limitations of climate and location placed on grapes is not the same and while the category appears to be shrinking, we have tasted fruit wines from every province in Canada (no territories yet!) at the National Wine Awards of Canada throughout the past quarter century.

Many fruit wines are off dry to medium sweet though some are made as dry table wines. Most are likely only sold through the farm gate or speciality retail stores and rarely seen on restaurant menus, which is a shame since I see a number of the entries being well suited to various dishes and courses. This year’s judging saw twenty-six entries with twelve medals awarded.

Over the years, I have judged my fair share of the familiar fruit wine suspects – raspberry, cherry, blueberry, and blackberry. I have also encountered the unusual and at times odd, with wines made from dandelion and tomato. New to me this year was a pumpkin wine, which was so notable we awarded it gold.

Maan Farms in the Fraser Valley have been winning gold for their fruit wines over the past several years and this year was no different. Two of their entries won gold, one silver and three were awarded bronze. Quite an impressive haul. The judges awarded gold to the Maan 2023 Raspberry Wine, a pure and concentrated essence of raspberry. We were especially enthralled with the Maan Mad Pumpkin Spice wine, which would be fantastic on a tasting menu paired with both savoury and sweet dishes.

And the winners are…