Brassy is an attitude, and a colour. Our selections for this post all have some attitude, and most more colour depth than might be expected.  At this time of year as evenings cool we Canadians feel autumn coming on in our bones. We are pushing our evenings on the deck and dock just as long as we can, and a heftier white wine seems like just the bridge we need between summer and fall. Still chilled but not too chilled. Sippable but also transportable to the table with rich, complex salads and noodle bowls, with seafood, poultry and pork or vegan compilations, often best with Asian ambiance.

The quirk is that this is not a style you might expect from Canadian whites. We do brisk, crisp, acid driven, tensile whites very well – chardonnays, sauvignons and rieslings. But surely grapes like viognier, marsanne, verdejo, and gewurztraminer are from an alternate universe. Yet here they are, from across the land, in so many different pockets. 

This post features wines literally from Vancouver Island to Nova Scotia – with stops between including the Similkameen Valley, Golden Mile Bench, Naramata Bench and The Kootenays in B.C.  In Ontario:  Lincoln Lakeshore, St Davids Bench and Beamsville Bench and southern Quebec. It is the most diverse selection yet assembled at Canada’s Best Wines. 

I sometimes feel as if diversity is an excuse for fooling around, creating novelty then charging more for the novelty, whether successful or not.  But on a less cynical level it needs to be done, just to see what might happen.  

Take the example of Terravista Vineyard on the upper benches of Naramata in the Okanagan, who have parlayed an interest in Spanish grape varieties into a major critical  success story – with their verdejo, albarino and blends thereof consistently capturing hearts and medal hardware for almost a decade now. Very few others have picked up on this.

Then there are the southern France/Mediterranean varieties like viognier, marsanne and roussanne, which twenty years ago were laughable in Canada. Yet here in 2026, no less than fifteen finished with Gold or Silver Medals at the National Wine Awards, plus the Platinum winning Roche Viognier Marsanne 2023 from Naramata, which I have not tasted through fault of my own. Viognier 2025s from the South Okanagan have scored big time. So, these grapes certainly make some sense here, but to see them bursting forth in Niagara is a changing climate tell-tale. 

Next consider gewurztraminer of Alsace and Germany, which is more latitudinally aligned. It has for decades produced occasional spot-on gems in B.C. and Ontario, but as a marginal commercial idea around the world, one cannot blame Canadian growers and wineries for not participating. Yet this grape’s distinctive character always has and always will have a small fan base, and Canada can deliver.  

Gewurztraminer’s most promising base is the Okanagan Valley, which shares a geographic similarity to Alsace, France – where this grape paints masterpieces. Both are northern regions – Alsace at 48 degrees, the Okanagan at 49.  Both are higher altitude, interior regions sitting in rain-shadows protected by hill/mountain ranges, with ample fall ripening sunshine.  It should be noted that one of the world’s great white winemakers and Masters of Wine Olivier Humbrecht of Alsace is consulting on white wine production at Phantom Creek in the south Okanagan. Not for gewurztraminer, but for pinot gris, as detailed in the review below.  We have also uncovered a richer pinot gris from Unsworth on Vancouver Island. 

Over to Ontario, where none of these varieties seem instinctively hot-wired for success. First, none are historically of commercial imperative. And a combination of less-than-ideal cool climate and humid growing conditions dampens enthusiasm even more. Yet they are increasingly delivering spot success.  Gewurztraminer seems to have the longest history, with memorable examples in the early days from Chateau des Charmes, Reif and Konzelmann.  But no modern Ontario examples have pinged my radar except the Volta Estates Traminer 2025 reviewed recently. 

In Ontario the Rhone varieties – viognier, marsanne, roussanne – are a much more recent phenomenon. Not the most winter hardy varieties they have nonetheless taken hold, with roussanne in particular being the most tender (and just recently approved as an authorized VQA varietal). Although old marsanne and viognier vines planted at Kew Vineyard by Philip Dowell on Beamsville Bench have perhaps been sending the message all along, and more wineries are now paying attention, particularly in warmer regions in Lincoln Lakeshore and St Davids Bench.  An article by Lidija Biro in Wines of Niagara offers more depth https://winesinniagara.com/2025/11/winemakers-in-niagara-finding-success-with-viognier-marsanne-and-roussanne-grapes

Into Quebec and Atlantic Canada, the focus shifts to hybrid varieties, and blends thereof that deliver aromatic oomph and textural richness. Nova Scotia’s Tidal Bay blends are the most well-established examples, but as Janet Dorozynski writes, the Quebec landscape is a burgeoning new world of white wine exoticism, finding creative new expressions in hybrid-based blends, including old stand-by Franco-American hybrids like vidal and seyval blanc, but also a new generation of “Northern” hybrids developed at the University of Minnesota. 

The last point to make is that most are not expensive wines, and thus offer four to five star value. If there are some of interest not made in your province, I suggest this is a good time to dabble in inter-provincial direct to consumer shipping, Although not technically established between some provinces, it has been agreed to by the provincial premiers during a signing July 21, 2026.  Most wineries are already doing thus.