The Canadian Culinary Championship January 29-31, Ottawa
This grand food and wine soiree staged by Canada’s Great Kitchen Party is one the country’s great Canadian wine events. At this competition ten winning chefs from regional competitions across Canada face-off for the national title. But Canadian wines and winemakers share the stage.
There will be three important wine events, beginning with a Trade Tasting Friday, January 30 at 2pm of the 50 wines being poured over the weekend. (Please contact me if you are in the trade and would like to attend) On Friday evening there is the Mystery Wine Competition, with one wine poured blind to the chefs and guests. The Mystery Wine Reception will feature wines from seven wineries that have purchased fruit from the prestigious Grimsby Hillside Vineyard in Niagara.
The Grand Finale Competition on Jan 31 will feature two wine stations featuring new and classic wines from each of Prince Edward County and Niagara. From the County, wineries include Closson Chase, Rosehall Run, Grange of Prince Edward, Hinterland and La Volta. From Niagara: Bachelder Wines, Mason Vineyards, Domaine Queylus, MW Cellars, Perenelle, York Vineyard and Stone Eagle/Two Sisters
The CCC features a Wine of the Year competition with the winner announced January 31. The February 12 (Post 6) of Canada’s Best Wines will provide detailed tasting notes and backgrounders on the finalists and other competitors that I loved.
We would love to be featuring B.C. wines as well but regulations in Ontario prevent timely importing of these non-listed wines for public consumption. We are working on this.
Volta Estates Coming Out in Jan 2026, Prince Edward County
There is no winery or tasting room yet but the signs are up on the Loyalist Parkway near Hillier in Prince Edward County. And four wines are in bottle and on sale through from the website. But more importantly for their marketing aims, the first Volta Estates wine is now on shelf in Ontario in LCBOs VINTAGES stores, with an accompanying profile in VINTAGES magazine. The ‘cru’ at WineAlign tasted the range on January 8/9 with reviews now available to WineAlign subscribers.
I first encountered Volta at the National Wine Awards of Canada last June, then the International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration in July. They were both fly-by encounters. I have now had more time to consider the wines which are in the very good quality range, with their amphora-fermented 2023 chardonnay rising into excellence based on the lovely balance and texture.
There are three chardonnays, each showing some buttery malolactic fermentation character I have never really enjoyed, most in the 2023 Unoaked Chardonnay. The Pinot Noir 2023 shows classic County Pinot cherry fruit, elegant, smooth texture and freshness, but some acetone volatility needs hours/days of aeration to disappear. The structure and depth of the pinot is excellent. The texture and balance of the wines is overall excellent
Volta is a project by the Steven Del Degan, an architect by training who became enamored with the County, as so many do! His architectural bent is evident in the renderings of the future winery, which is grand indeed, if not County contextual. He has hired winemaker Chris Thompson, formerly of Lighthall Vineyards in the County, and Edgar Ramirez, a County viticulturalist since 2002, who has provided fruit for the 2023 chardonnays
Serious aspiration here.
Two Canadian Wine Champions Receive Order of Canada
It is not often that people from the culinary and wine world in Canada receive the Order of Canada. I now know four. One is friend and colleague Tony Aspler, who has written about Canadian wines for almost 50 years. Another is chef Jamie Kennedy with whom I collaborated over the years. Two more were announced by the Governor Generals Office on December 31. See the brief GG bios below, on which I expand.
Donald Triggs’ “visionary leadership reshaped Canada’s wine industry, notably growing Vincor International (now Arterra Wines Canada) into its largest producer and marketer. His entrepreneurial drive extended to influential roles in industry organizations. Beyond business, he is a committed philanthropist who supports education and the arts with passion and purpose,”
With former business partner Alan Jackson, Don Triggs created one of Canada’s best-known brands, built the showpiece Jackson-Triggs winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, created the Osoyoos-Larose joint venture in Osoyoos in B.C., propelled the Franco-Canadian joint venture in Niagara that created what is now Domaine Le Clos Jordanne. And on his retirement from Vincor in 2006 he moved to the British Columbia to create the prestigious Culmina Winery in the Golden Mile sub-appellation of the Okanagan Valley. Which, full circle, he has sold back to Arterra.
Stephen Beckta is “an entrepreneur whose fine dining establishments are celebrated among Ottawa’s iconic restaurants. He is also admired for his community service as a long-time board member and former chair of the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, and for his engagement with organizations whose programs positively impact the lives of Canadians”.
Stephen opened the iconic Beckta Dining & Wine in 2003, relocating to the larger space at 150 Elgin St in 2014. All along he has championed Canadian wine on his lists, not to the point of exclusivity or chest-beating, but having a classy knack for selecting some of Canada’s best and presenting them proudly among global peers in various styles and price ranges
B.C. Wineries Dominate the Vancouver International Wine Festival, March 7-14
Tickets are now on sale for Canada’s largest and longest running wine festival. France is the theme country at this year’s festival, with 26 wineries in attendance. But British Columbia wineries form the largest contingent with 34 wineries pouring their wares. Here is the list https://vanwinefest.ca/2026-participating-wineries/.
For most it will be the first chance to taste Azhadi Vineyards, a new high-end Kelowna-based winery designed to be ‘a meeting place’ for eastern and western cultures. It is scheduled to open this year but a date is not yet announced. It will also be the debut for Sage Hayward on Saturna Island in the Gulf Islands appellation, recently re-opened after the refurbishment of the property first planed in 1995.
And that’s a wrap for this first edition. The News will publish once a month, in the second or third week. Please let me know about new wines, wineries and events you think will be of interest.
Cheers, David