Top Canadian Red Blends

The best red blends at the Wine Access 2011 Canadian Wine Awards

(115 entries, 87 medals)

This record-setting category is the largest of the awards, and sports the largest medal ratio — yet it has only one gold. Many winemakers remain determined to make big Bordeaux-inspired cab-merlot/meritage blends and/or Rhône blends, despite Canada’s shorter growing season. Is this for the market and stature, more than terroir? Many are doing a good job, but few are achieving excellence, although the large number of silvers indicates some are close. B.C.’s Okanagan Valley rules this category, with Ontario only garnering five of the 32 silvers, again perhaps due to cooler 2008 and 2009 vintages. Winnipeg’s Ben McPhee-Sigurdon says: “My top six wines were all merlot-based blends.” And Toronto's Tony Aspler praised “the concentration, depth of colour and temperate use of oak.”

Below is a slideshow with a tasting note for the gold medal red blend winner at the Wine Access 2011 Canadian Wine Awards.

A complete list of the silver and bronze medal winners may be found on the last slide in the slide show.