Awards prove excellence comes in many varieties

“Diverse” is the word often used to describe the current state of the B.C. wine industry and the results of the recent Lieutenant-governor’s Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wines (LG Wine Awards) served to reinforce this characterization.

The LG Wine Awards competition was started in 2003 by Iona Campagnolo when she was B.C.’s lieutenantgovernor, to recognize the quality, evolution and significance of the province’s wine industry.

This year, I was honoured to be the first person from outside the province invited to participate on the judging panel, which included eight others.

More than 400 wines were submitted to the competition, which was held over three days earlier this month at Government House in Victoria.

The nine judges tasted approximately a third of the wines in the preliminary round, then the 84 wines that progressed to the semifinals and finally the 30 wines selected for the final round. In the end, 14 wines were recognized. All wines were tasted blind and the winning wines would have each been tasted 27 times by the judges.

Although there was much discussion, in the end there was strong consensus among the judges regarding the deserving winners.

Eleven different grape varieties were represented in the 14 winning wines, and a variety of growing regions were also recognized. The Okanagan has a tremendous diversity of soil conditions and microclimates, but high quality wines are also being produced in the Similkameen Valley, Creston, Kamloops and on Vancouver Island (for the first time, a Vancouver Island winery was among the winners).

Some of the winning wines to look for in Alberta include Ex Nihilo Pinot Noir 2013, Church & State Quintessential 2012, and Noble Ridge ‘The One’ Sparkling 2010.

The complete list of winners can be viewed at ltgov. bc.ca.