WineAlign - Awards - 2024 NWAC Other Red Single Varieties

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

Malbec and other Red Single Varieties

Category Overview by Judge Geoffrey Moss, MW

(Jump straight to the medal winners.)

The “other red single varieties” category could be renamed “Malbec and other red single varieties.” Last year, I wrote that Malbec “feels like it’s on the cusp of a breakout.” That trend certainly continued with the 2024 awards. Malbec represented nearly half of the medal winners in this category (18 of 41) and accounted for 88% of the gold medals (7 of 8). It also punched well above its relative weight. It accounted for just 1.4% of entries in the competition but earned 4.1% of all gold medals. That puts it in similar company to heavyweight categories like Syrah/Shiraz (8.3% of golds, 4.1% of all entries) and Red Blends (13.6% of golds, 10.4% of all entries). And that doesn’t even factor in the Malbec-dominant red blends highlighted last week.

This trend is almost entirely driven by British Columbia, with the noteworthy exception of a gold medal for Lailey’s 2021 Lailey Vineyard Wild Ferment Malbec. There’s something special about Okanagan Malbec. Much like Syrah, it does well up and down the valley. There are compelling cool(er)-climate expressions from Naramata, often juicy and intensely floral, such as Van Westen’s 2021 Violeta and the Fox & Archer 2021 Malbec. Further south, Malbec thrives in the heat of Oliver and Osoyoos, producing rich, opulently-styled wines well-exemplified by Rainmaker, Road 13, and Valley Commons. On the other side of Mount Kobau, Corcelettes continues to show that you can’t overlook Similkameen Malbec, either.

The remainder of the category is a combination of tried-and-true workhorses alongside the rare and unusual. Blasted Curch’s 2022 Small Blessings Grenache, the only non-Malbec gold medal, shows that Rhône varieties continue to perform well in the South Okanagan – if only they could consistently survive the winter. But silver medalists like Moon Curser’s Touriga Nacional and Carménère as well as Three Sisters’s 2022 Tempranillo show that there’s still a lot of room for successful experimentation.

And the winners are…

Blasted Church 2022 Small Blessings Grenache, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Corcelettes 2021 Malbec Micro Lot Series Estate Vineyard, Similkameen Valley, British Columbia
Fox&Archer 2021 Malbec, Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Lailey Winery 2021 Wild Ferment Malbec Lailey Vineyard, Niagara River, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Rainmaker Wines 2020 Malbec The Risk Taker Rattlesnake Vineyard, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Road 13 2021 John Oliver Selection Malbec, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Valley Commons 2021 Malbec Single Vineyard, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Van Westen 2021 Violeta, Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

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