WineAlign - Awards - 2024 NWAC Chardonnay

Results of the 2024 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada (The Nationals)

Chardonnay

Category Overview by Judge John Szabo

(Jump straight to the medal winners.)

Chardonnay: Consistent Performance and Performers

Read back through the chardonnay category overviews from previous editions of the NWACs and the message is clear: chardonnay is a consistent winner in Canada, comfortably in the pole position among white varieties grown in all four major wine producing provinces: Ontario, British Columbia, Québec and Nova Scotia.

It’s always one of the largest categories, indeed the largest this year at 10.8% of all entries (only Red Blends came close at 10.4% of all entries), also with the highest ratio of wines on the podium per entry, representing 12.6% of all medals, a total of 135 wines, including three platinum and 21 gold medals. This is a similar split to previous years, where chardonnay always leads or equals the greatest number of medals from platinum to bronze. Prices ranged from $87 for the most expensive medal winner to $11.95 for the least.

And while the most expensive wine was not a platinum winner, there is, at least statistically speaking, a correlation between price and medal earned, establishing that top quality wine sells for more money, as though you needed reminding of this. The average price for the platinum winners came in at just over $45, $40 for golds, $39 for silver and $33 for Bronze.

Top Values

Sub-$20 chardonnay gold medal winners are vinous unicorns, though Konzelmann 2022 Reserve Series Chardonnay Barrel Aged and Monte Creek 2022 Living Land Chardonnay, come pretty close at $25.

I’d also encourage you to consider a quartet of silver medal winners that cost the least: Malivoire 2022 Estate Grown Chardonnay (ON, $22.95), Fielding 2022 Chardonnay Estate Bottled (ON, $21.95), Corcelettes 2023 Phoenix Chardonnay(BC, $21.90), and Chaberton Estate Winery 2022 Unoaked Chardonnay (BC, $18.95).

And by the same measure, bronze winners Kacaba Vineyards 2022 Select Series Unoaked Chardonnay (ON, $15.95), Megalomaniac Wines N/V Much Obliged Unoaked Chardonnay (ON, $15.95), all surely deliver exceptional value.

Consistent Winners

Any single National Wine Awards provides an objective snapshot of the state of the industry, reflecting the most recent vintages and emerging and dying trends, also lightning strikes and uncharacteristic misses. But taking a larger view over several editions of the NWACs provides perhaps a fairer evaluation of Canada’s most consistent chardonnay performers over a longer period.

In addition to this year’s winners, I looked back through the results of the 2023 and 2022 editions of the Awards to look for names that featured most frequently among the platinum and gold medal winners. Only B.C. and Ontario yielded wineries with more than one gold or platinum in the last three years. Topping the list from British Columbia is Quails’ Gate with 7 gold/platinum wines, followed by CedarCreek with 6, Meyer with 4 including a platinum this year, Nk’Mip with 3, Mission Hill with 3 (though who inexplicably did not enter wines this year) and Monte Creek and Liquidity with 2 apiece.

From Ontario, Hidden Bench tops the list with 4, though surprisingly no gold or platinum medals this year, while Le Clos Jordanne, Two Sisters, Westcott and Tawse have all had 3, and Cloudsley and Trius round out the list with 2 each.

These are safe names to look for consistent quality year in and year out, though there are many lightning strikes each vintage that are specifically worth tracking down, which you’ll find each year in the medals.

Flat Trends

There are no new major style trends to report. Winemakers abandoned heavily oak-inflected versions many vintages ago now, and, as has been the case for some years, the crème de la crème showed only moderate creaminess, banking instead on laser-sharp focus, subtle wood influence for textural enhancement rather than flavour development, and extra-fruity (non-fruity) flavours that we like to describe as minerality.

Platinum Winners

WineAlign congratulates pioneering Ontario winery Henry of Pelham for their first appearance in the platinums with the Henry of Pelham 2022 Speck Family Reserve Chardonnay (ON, $34.95). The other platinum winners are familiar regulars Meyer with the Meyer 2022 Chardonnay McLean Creek Road Vineyard (BC, $32.26), and Quails’ Gate 2021 Rosemary’s Block Chardonnay (BC, $69.00).

And the winners are…

Henry of Pelham 2022 Speck Family Reserve Chardonnay, Short Hills Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Meyer 2022 Chardonnay McLean Creek Road Vineyard, Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Quails’ Gate 2021 Rosemary’s Block Chardonnay, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

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