WineAlign - Awards - 2019 NWAC Sauvignon Blanc

Results of the 2019 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada (The Nationals)

Sauvignon Blanc

Category Overview by Judge Michael Godel

The diplomacy of Canadian Sauvignon Blanc

What is sauvignon blanc? More importantly why does it solicit so much winemaking interest, continue to be planted at increasing rates and produced with so much great heart? The Grape Growers of Ontario see it as “an extremely precocious and vigorous cultivar in Ontario, even on sites of low vigor potential.” Though it is very sensitive to extreme cold, it is attractive “for its vegetal or herbaceous flavours.” In British Columbia sauvignon blanc experienced an explosion in the 1990s” and is made in a “style (that) benefits from the natural high acidity and fruit ripeness. Both the crisp, zingy, green bean, grass and asparagus style, as well as a riper, tropical fruit, richer version can be found. Some of the most successful wines are oak fermented and blended with sémillon to make wines in a white Bordeaux style.”

(Jump straight to the medal winners.)

In Canada’s cool climate viticultural regions there just seems to be this persistent thirst for grassy, herbal and gooseberry gifting white wines embraced as sauvignon blanc but also those that are flinty, smoky, nutty, creamy and rich. This tells us that sauvignon blanc makes full use of its wiles to attain its ends. Whether or not you see its origins as Loire Valley (Sancerre, Touraine, Pouilly Fumé and Cheverny) or Bordeaux (Pessac-Léognan, Graves, Côtes de Bordeaux Blayes et Franc and Entre-Deux-Mers), Canada’s sauvignon blanc finds a way to please all camps.

There were 25 medals awarded to Canadian sauvignon blanc at the 2019 Nationals, one platinum (Note: Platinum awards will be announced on July 31), three Gold, four Silver and 16 Bronze. The split between Ontario and British Columbia was almost exact with the nod to the east by only one over the west. Trius Showcase Clean Slate Sauvignon Blanc Wild Ferment 2017 from Niagara-on-the-Lake took home top honours, yet another varietal wine in the ever-increasingly impressive Showcase line-up fostered by winemaker Craig McDonald. This is a wine that won Silver in 2017, Gold in 2018 and now Platinum in 2019. I’d say that’s called moving in the right direction. Nearby to Trius, out of Niagara vineyards is the Peller Estates Private Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2018, a consistently high quality example that continues to show remarkable success for sauvignon blanc in Ontario with its second straight NWAC Gold.

The other two Gold winners are from British Columbia, one for the Howling Bluff Sauvignon Blanc Three Mile Creek 2018 noted by one judge as “exuberant…zesty acidity and a textural, multi-layered core.” The Hillside Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2018 from the Naramata Bench impressed as well as a “very ripe style of sauvignon blanc…crisp and refreshing with a smooth, medium-bodied profile and a subtly sweet, fruity finish.” The Silver winners are split two and two from both provinces, as are the Bronze winners in equal numbers, eight to eight. It’s just so bloody obvious that sauvignon blanc offers consumers what they want; equality, diplomacy and something for everyone.

And the winners are…

Trius 2017 Showcase Clean Slate Sauvignon Blanc Wild Ferment, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

Hillside 2018 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Howling Bluff 2018 Sauvignon Blanc Three Mile Creek, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Peller Estates 2018 Private Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario

G.Marquis 2017 Sauvignon Blanc The Red Line, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Hidden Bench 2017 Fume Blanc Rosomel Vineyard, Beamsville Bench, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Le Vieux Pin 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Peller Estates Okanagan 2018 Family Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia