WineAlign - Awards - 2019 NWAC Red Blends

Results of the 2019 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada (The Nationals)

Red Blends

Category Overview by Judge Michael Godel

Some producers may be riding red blends to the bank while others, including many winemakers, love making them. Hearing about or looking at the broad term “red blends” causes many of us to think about wines that are big in every respect. Broad-shouldered, big-bodied, long-legged, tannic and age-worthy. As for how these wines are made we imagine a barrel room of oak casks filled with deep, rich and dark liquids made by winemakers and their science flasks layered by endless combinations of samples in varying percentages. It is how most red blends are made. Barrel and tank samples of different grape varieties are pulled, and with a limited maximum amount of each kept in mind, the constituent samples are mixed and matched until the blend feels and tastes just right. Add in a bit of chemistry for scientific balance and Red’s your uncle.

(Jump straight to the medal winners.)

Red blends are employed as that highly scientific wine-speak term used to define one of the largest, broadest and most undefined categories in wine. There are blends established in the Old World emulated and mimicked from Argentina to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and everywhere vinifera is grown. Bordeaux’s Left and Right Bank are most commonly copied but so too is the Southern Rhône. The triumvirate of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot lead the way while grenache, syrah and mourvèdre are the sources of many imitations. Blending does not stop at such multi-varietal exactitude because the Australians (namely) decided that syrah/shiraz goes with everything and why not. The concept of admixture or fusion is becoming increasingly relevant and the norm for red blends made in Canada, especially in British Columbia and to a lesser extent in Ontario too.

Anything made with two or more grape varieties qualifies, and in some cases, a kitchen sink is amalgamated from literally dozens of locally planted options. As judges, we know the blend in order of the percentage of each grape, but the exact amounts remains a mystery. Truth be told the necessity of understanding the blend percentages is the mother of invention. It is because each wine is a sum of its combinative parts while success is predicated on the communal effort and seamlessness of the gathering. More than anything, it’s cliché to say, wines as blends must achieve balance, and those that do will reap the most reward. News flash to corroborate that theory. Most varietal wines are blends too, made up of vineyard slash vessel percentages picked, mixed and matched by the winemaker. What is the big difference?

Is there any wonder why Canadian winemakers love the category of Red Blends? At this year’s Nationals, there are 105 medals awarded to a group of wines that in their collective make-up include just about every red (plus a white or two) grape varieties grown in Canada. Read that number again: 105! Three out of four Platinum winners are from British Columbia and 12 of 14 Silvers as well. As for Bronze, 60 are from B.C., 24 from Ontario and three are from Nova Scotia.

While it would be a joyous exercise to break down all the medal-winning wines, it would also be one that just might put you to sleep. So for analytical brevity and for the fact that we have an unprecedented four Platinum winners in 2019, let’s stick to these exceptional wines. The Hatch Dynasty Red 2016 is syrah and malbec from the Hans Estate Vineyard in Osoyoos raised in all new French oak for 18 months. Yes, ALL new French oak. Noble Ridge Reserve Meritage 2016 from Okanagan Falls is essentially classic Left Bank Bordeaux led by merlot with cabernet sauvignon with minor amounts of cabernet franc plus malbec. Hester Creek Syrah Viognier 2017 from the Okanagan Valley is a stunner and steal for the price. Niagara’s Tawse Meritage 2015 is a three-pronged Bordeaux varietal mix of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc “with so much going on; you might not understand what it’s trying to say.” It’s like Glossolalia but will surely live on through epochs of Canadian Meritage notability and infamy.

Ok, I lied. Some mentions and some love for the Golds as well. Out of Niagara the judges jumped for the merlot, cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon in Marynissen Heritage Collection Red 2015 and the kitchen sink blend only Stratus Red 2016 can gift – cabernet franc, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, syrah, malbec, tannat and petit verdot. The hits keep on coming from B.C., especially strong in this category demarcated by grip, grit and strength. The following 12 began their journeys with a plethora of varietal combinations, spoke with great ability to reach the judges palates and all ended up Gold.

Note the seemingly infinite combinations is this diverse group. Maverick 2016 Rubeus, syrah, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc; Bench 1775 2016 Cabernet Franc Malbec; Corcelettes 2016 Meritage Estate Vineyard, merlot, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, malbec and petit verdot; Corcelettes 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah Menhir Estate Vineyard; Black Hills 2017 Addendum, merlot, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon; TIME Winery 2016 Meritage, merlot, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon; Mission Hill 2016 Quatrain, merlot, syrah, cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon; Sandhill 2016 Single Vineyard One Small Lots Program Vanessa Vineyard, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon merlot and syrah; Moon Curser 2017 Dead of Night, syrah and tannat; Sun Rock Vineyards 2016 Red Meritage, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc; Red Rooster 2016 Golden Egg, mourvèdre, syrah and grenache; Nk’Mip Cellars 2016 Winemakers Talon, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, malbec, merlot, cabernet franc and pinot noir.

If you don’t see a clear and distinct pattern in these Red Blends be neither confused nor discouraged because this is how things function and in turn offer up so much possibility in fresher frontiers. In today’s garden of climate change affected vineyards, it is Canadian winemakers who are the beneficiaries of the wild west, anything-goes, environment where mates can be made across varietal lines both renewed and re-invented. Embrace diversity and let it ride.

And the winners are…

Hester Creek 2017 Syrah Viognier , Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Noble Ridge Vineyard & Winery 2016 Meritage Reserve , Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Tawse 2015 Meritage, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

The Hatch 2016 Dynasty Red, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia