Results from the 2025 Nationals – Mead and Other Non-Fruit Wines

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!

Mead and Other Non-Fruit Wines

Category Overview by Judge Sara d’Amato

Go straight to the winners.

Honey is the heart of mead—this ancient elixir begins with a simple yet alchemical act: blending honey with water, then letting yeast work its magic. From there, the recipe may be dressed up with fruits, spices, botanicals or even barley, but make no mistake: mead is neither beer nor cider. It’s its own storied creature, steeped in a millennium of history and myth. Mead halls echo through the pages of legendary literature—from the heroic verses of Beowulf, to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, into the enchanted realms of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and more recently in Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Wicher Series, among others. Wherever adventure brews, a horn of mead is never far behind.

Tasked with judging the most adventurous of beverages, we soon found ourselves venturing beyond the vineyard and into wilder territory—sampling non-fruit-based wines crafted from everything from all-Canadian maple syrup to dandelions. An eye-opening detour to many grape-faithful judges that sparked lively debate and led to unexpected discoveries. Among them, Alberta’s Spirit Hills Flower Winery took the sole gold for its 2024 Dande Dandelion Flower Wine. It drew on a harmonious blend of wildflower honey, rosehips, herbs, and hand-picked dandelion petals—a sublime melding of flowers and hives.

A cascade of silver medals followed with strong showings from Quebec producers Domaine au tour de table in Maskinongé and a perennial favourite, Charles-Aimé Robert, this time with their “acer” an alcoholised maple sap. Their “sèvre tardive” entry (Late Flow Sap), aged eight years in oak, earned considerable acclaim. East Kelowna’s Meadow Vista Honey Wines—tended by 150 industrious hives that pollinate neighbouring farms, took two silvers in the category with their Roseus Solis and Bliss Apple Cyser Bubbly, a fusion of fermented honey and organic apple juice.

If these wines are too wild or unfamiliar, ease in with a cocktail Try maple sap wine with fresh grapefruit juice over ice and a spring of rosemary. Or shake up a “Danderita”: Spirit Hills Dande meets tequila, lime and a splash of sparkling water. Or boldly drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream into a rose and raspberry mead for a float that’s part dessert and part revelation. Once you’ve had your first sip, odds are you’ll want to meet these bevvies again, this time, straight up.

And the winners are…