Results from the 2025 Nationals – Rosé

Announcing the Results from the 2025 National Wine Awards of Canada

The 2025 Nationals took place in Penticton from June 21st to 25th. Today, we are pleased to announce the winners in the Rosé, Pinot Gris/Grigio and Orange Wines categories. Category results will be rolling out throughout the rest of July, concluding with the Winery of the Year announcement on August 1st. We hope that you will stay tuned to follow the results!

Rosé

Category Overview by Judge Sara d’Amato

Go straight to the winners.

A great rosé begins with intention; it is rarely an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink afterthought.

As I write this from a sun-drenched, wind-swept afternoon in the south of France, where rosé flows as freely as water, my thoughts turn to our country where rosé has far less of a foothold, let alone the kind of regional traditions or production specifications seen here. The standout Canadian bottles are a diverse bunch, not only in grape variety but in style, with no single region or formula tying them together. Yet this can be an advantage—we are not Provence, Rhône, Loire, Bordeaux, Champagne or even Navarra—we can be whoever we want to be.

Rosé refreshes us—and in a warming world, that quality becomes less of a luxury and more of a necessity. Its soaring popularity stems largely from this cooling charm. Tied for second place in the reasons-to-love-it race: its remarkable versatility at the table, its power to bridge the divide between white and red drinkers, and the fact that nearly any grape variety can be coaxed into a pink expression (providing that white grapes are blended or co-fermented with reds). Rosé doesn’t just belong to one corner of the wine world—it’s a chameleon and that’s part of its intrigue.

In judging these awards and tasting blind, we are not given any information on the region nor the grape varieties—done with the foresight that we may have learned biases against certain non-vinifera grape varieties. Does that mean that a gold medal would not have been bestowed upon La Cantina Vallée d’Oka’s compelling 2024 Rosé from Quebec based on chardonnay, pinot noir, and vidal? I would like to think that we would have caught this gem but sometimes it’s best not to leave brilliance up to chance.

To round up our selections, Niagara dominated the gold medal winners, in fact, most of all medalling rosés went to Niagara yet there were some notable contributions from the Okanagan from Chaberton’s 2024 La Fleur de Chaberton, Road 13’s 2022 Honest John’s Bright Rosé, and Synchromesh’s 2023 Pinot Noir Rosé from Storm Haven Vineyard, among others. Outside of Niagara in Ontario, Rosehall Run’s elegant 2024 Pinot Noir Rosé was awarded a silver medal.

Pinot noir edged out as the preferred grape among award-winning producers, but only by a slight majority. What stole the spotlight was the pale-pink, dry Provençal format. While there was plenty of discussion about not sidelining deeper-hued rosés, they simply showed up in smaller numbers. As for southern French grapes varieties used, they were scarce among the winners—in the gold medal tier, only Niagara’s MW Cellars syrah rosé came close to mimicking the southern French spirit. And then a standout: Two Sister’s 2023 Margo Rosé crafted from merlot (yes, that grape everyone claims to disdain but secretly enjoys), it struck a balance between the delicately pale, yet bursting with the plump, juicy charm merlot does so well.

In conclusion: sip more rosé, make it like you mean it, ditch the colour prejudice, and above all, have fun with it!

And the winners are…