Canada is poised to become a great sparkling wine nation, with geography at our soul. All of our wine regions are considered cool climate. That would be north of 43 degrees latitude, which is a generally accepted point of definition, with allowance depending on more specific microclimates.
In Southern Ontario, the appellations of Lake Erie North Shore at 42 degrees, Niagara at 43.5 and Prince Edward County at 44 are in that band, and are impacted by the Great Lakes. Quebec’s Eastern Townships region is at 45.5, with no Great Lakes, similar to Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley at 45 degrees, which sits astride the Atlantic ocean. In B.C., Vancouver Island is at 48.5, and the Fraser Valley and south interior are above 49 degrees. Lillooet and the Thompson River Valley are north of 50.
Sparkling wine depends first and foremost on high natural acidity in the grapes, achieved through picking on the brink of ripeness, where acidity is pronounced yet there is enough flavour development to make distinctively flavoured base wines. Canada delivers these conditions coast to coast, with same grape varieties — pinot noir and chardonnay — that are used in Champagne (49 degrees).
Beyond geography, production of sparkling wine becomes a very technical, complicated and costly endeavor, requiring investment and experience. Those base wines are fermented, tasted, sorted out and blended before being put into a bottle (traditional method) or pressurized tank (Charmat method) where yeast and sugar are added. This creates a second fermentation with spent yeasts imparting their autolytic or “bready” complexity to fruit as the wine ages. In Canada, for traditional method wines, this ageing lasts a minimum of 12 months, with most ageing considerably longer. Some vintage-dated sparklers are aged more than five years.
Geography is the given, but it is in the production of sparkling wine where Canada is rapidly gaining critical mass, experience and reputation, having only really begun to attempt in the past 30 years. Karl Podamer made traditional method sparkling wines in Niagara in the 1970s (selling to Magnotta in 1993). Trius was the first in Niagara to invest in a commercial sparkling wine program and bottle ageing cellar in the late 1980s. This was the same time frame in B.C., with Harry McWatters making Steller’s Jay at Sumac Ridge, and the Mavety family launching their sparklers at Blue Mountain. Benjamin Bridge was the first in Nova Scotia, opening in 1999.
Fast forward to the 2025 National Wine Awards of Canada in Penticton B.C., where the sparkling wine category had grown to become the third largest in the competition after chardonnay and the very broad category called red blends. As reported by WineAlign’s Michael Godel, there were “100 medals awarded for sparkling wines — 23 were gold, 34 silver and 43 bronze. The provincial breakdown at the gold level was 12 from Ontario, 10 out of British Columbia and one for Nova Scotia.” For further evidence of the breadth of sparkling wine achievement in Canada, 20 different wineries accounted for 23 of the gold medals, with dozens more recording silver or bronze.
The Sparkling Specialists
This article focuses on Canada’s sparkling specialists that are making more expensive, higher-quality traditional-method wines. The average price among the gold medalists was $56, which is pretty much the floor price for Champagne in Canada.
A true specialist would be making sparkling wine only. In Canada only five wineries come to mind, all opening fairly recently, which, again, speaks to growing confidence in the genre within Canada. You will read more about these — including Ailm Estate, Evolve Cellars and Bella Wines in B.C., York Vineyard in Niagara, and Hinterland in Prince Edward County (est. 2007) — in the notes below. I have not included a tasting note from the Similkameen Valley’s Bella as I have simply not had an opportunity to make review notes from this earnest, organic and natural wine producer.
There is another class one could call specialists because — although they also make still wines — they have a long history of making high-quality traditional-method sparkling wines and have various styles within their portfolios. I have highlighted some of Canada’s best below — Blue Mountain in B.C., and Henry of Pelham and Trius in Ontario — where I have had some opportunity this year to taste. I regret not having recently tasted wines from Cipes near Summerland, B.C., or Township 7 in Naramata, B.C., whose Seven Stars series of sparkling wines took six medals at the National Wine Awards, including three golds.
Here are some of the best Canadian sparklers tasted in 2025, presented west to east. And I welcome Janet Dorozynski as regular contributor. She has reviewed the entries from Quebec and Nova Scotia, which are perhaps destined to be Canada’s best regions in the years to come. I am certainly a fan of what is going on there right now
