WineAlign - Awards - 2024 NWAC Sauvignon Blanc

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

Sauvignon Blanc

Category Overview by Judge Michael Godel

(Jump straight to the medal winners.)

This is the fourth time in the last five years I’ve been charged with the write up for the sauvignon blanc category at the WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada. In 2019 the title used was “The diplomacy of Canadian sauvignon blanc,” then in 2021 “The continuing maturation of Canadian sauvignon blanc” and from 2023, “The nine lives of sauvignon blanc.” Are we seeing a developing pattern here? Another year later the category continues to show favourable growth and so to anyone out there thinking that this expatriate French grape variety should fade into the waning light of Canadian wine, you’d better think again. That is why for 2024 we’re going with “Sail on Sauvignon Blanc.” The grape and also Canadian winemakers have many shores still to explore.

A recent Ontario example so madly and frenziedly took my palate by surprise and so I wrote that the wine was “bloody ripe sauvignon with high level acidity that does well to travel and expand, moving to the edges of the palate, with what Nick Jackson MW calls “spherical acidity.” Like a ball that circles on its own axis and around the mouth, pulling fruit with it but just enough to make chains with the structure.” This kind of response would not happen with grassy, herbal and gooseberry styled sauvignon blanc, nor from those that are overtly flinty, smoky, nutty, creamy and rich. Those two types are certainly prevalent in Canada but aye, herein lies the rub. Winemakers in this country are re-writing varietal scripts to turn out a new generation of wines.

The ’21 NWACS gave the judges the sort of quality that saw many wines score high because they “turned heads, palates and minds into the camp of the duly impressed.” Like it or not, love it or hate it from Canadian soils, sauvignon blanc had finally arrived. In 2023 I mentioned attributes that included “saltiness, piquancy, stoniness, herbaceous subtlety and other complexities to speak of a sense of place.” A year later the wines have taken even more strides and in turn gained increased favour from judges, wine lovers and consumers everywhere. The idea and in turn reality of planting sauvignon blanc in the four major wine-growing provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, Québec and Nova Scotia has never been more important.

In 2023 there were 42 medals awarded, 25 to Ontario and 17 for British Columbia. In 2024 that number was 32 with 20 to Ontario and 12 to British Columbia. That said the one Gold (Peller Estates 2022 Signature Series Sauvignon Blanc) and 11 of 16 Silvers were Ontario in origin. Of great interest is the average price of the 16 Silver Medal winners. These are (for the most part) wines that scored 90 points with an average cost of $23.40. The quality to price ratio is more than evident. In fact sauvignon blanc finished 7th (out of 33 NWACS categories) with 4.8 percent of the total Silvers. Only the most important Canadian wines fared better, they of course being chardonnay, Red Blends, riesling, sparkling, pinot noir and cabernet franc. Unheralded sauvignon blanc outpaced syrah, Rosé, Icewine, cabernet sauvignon, White Blends, merlot, pinot gris and gamay. What have you got to say now against sauvignon blanc? That’s what I thought. Now go out and find a bottle made from grapes grown somewhere in Canada. You too will be duly impressed.

And the winners are…

Peller Estates 2022 Signature Series Sauvignon Blanc, Niagara Lakeshore, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Adamo 2022 Sauvignon Blanc, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Bartier Bros. 2023 Sauvignon Blanc Desert Wolf Vineyard, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
CedarCreek 2023 Platinum Naramata Bench Sauvignon Blanc, Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Deep Roots 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Fielding 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Fresh N/V Sauvignon Blanc, Ontario
Gehringer Brothers 2023 Sauvignon Blanc Dry Rock Vineyards, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Henry of Pelham 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Lake Breeze 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Le Vieux Pin 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Organized Crime 2022 Sauvignon Blanc, Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Saintly Wines N/V The Good Sauvignon Blanc
Stag’s Hollow 2022 Renaissance Fumé Blanc Stag’s Hollow Vineyard, Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Vieni Estates 2021 Sauvignon Blanc , Vinemount Ridge, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Wending Home 2021 Earth Series Sauvignon Blanc Estate Vineyard, Creek Shores, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

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