Results of the 2018 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada (The Nationals)

Cabernet Sauvignon

Intro by Michael Godel

Ontario and British Columbia are the two primary sources of cabernet sauvignon and the only two that really factor into a National Wine Awards discussion. Tasting through a good number of cabernet sauvignon can really assist towards gaining an unbiased impression of what the differences are and what might make their respective terroirs cumulatively unique. British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley has reliably dry summers but much more day/night diurnal temperature fluctuations. In the summer Ontario typically stays much warmer at night and so the two humid beds of cabernet sauvignon have different ripening patterns. B.C. may have significantly more sunshine hours but not necessarily (always) more total heat. Which province reigns varietal supreme?

Neither really. The varietal is neither signature nor essential to the provinces’ red wine production, but the ever-expanding juggernaut will never cease and desist. In both Ontario and in B.C., plantings of the grape continue to remain in the top three. The consumer is always placated and appeased by its fruity-juicy nature, often by how it combines berries and chocolate. Its wide availability makes people happy and so growers gonna grow and producers gonna produce.

The grape populated the vineyards of California and then began to spread with merciless and mercenary fever across the globe. It has always grown with ease and even if it does not always ripen people would always find pleasure in its great ubiquity. It was celebrated and it has never looked back. If it now stands accused as being a colonizer at the expense of both autochthonous and more suitable local varieties, is the criticism warranted? Should a champion at the top of its game be castigated for its hard-earned, commercial success?

Yes and no. Never forget that cabernet sauvignon is the grape of commercial dreams. It sells, in restaurants, wine stores and out of the cellar door. It can be made well, provided the vintage abides and the winemakers find it in their hearts to set ambition aside and go easy on the new barrel augmentation. There are some great cab sauv terroirs on this planet, beyond Bordeaux. Coonawarra and Margaret River in Australia and Stellenbosch in South Africa stand out for me. Our Canadian climates are certainly antithetical to those three locales but still I’d like to see our producers look to these fresh, crisp and crunchy-styled wines for their greatest inspiration.

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Bordertown 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Jackson-Triggs Niagara 2015 Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Magnotta 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Venture Series, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Painted Rock 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Blasted Church 2015 Cross to Bear, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Blind Creek Collective 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Similkameen Valley, British Columbia
Blue Sky 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Chaberton 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Covert Farms 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Reserve , Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Hillside 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Howe Vineyard, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Indigenous 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Jackson-Triggs Okanagan 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Sunrock Vineyard, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Kacaba 2016 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Niagara Escarpment, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Marquis 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon The Red Line, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Monte Creek Ranch 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, British Columbia
Trius 2015 Showcase East Block Cabernet Sauvignon Clark Farm Vineyard, Four Mile Creek, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

C.C. Jentsch 2015 Small Lot Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Dirty Laundry 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Megalomaniac 2015 Bravado Cabernet Sauvignon, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Moon Curser 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Nk’Mip Cellars 2015 Qwam Qwmt Cabernet Sauvignon, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Ravine 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Trius 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

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