About ccwa

The Cold Climate Wine Awards (CCWA) was created to celebrate, showcase, and promote wines made from 100% cold climate grapes grown, vinified, and bottled in Canada.

The inaugural CCWA took placed on April 23, 2022, with 48 entries from seven wineries located in the emerging wine region of Ottawa Valley in Eastern Ontario.  The second CCWA  expanded to include wineries from across Canada and took place on April 28 & 29, 2023 .  Wineries producing wine from 100% cold climate grapes from the Ottawa Valley, Erie North Shore, Prince Edward County and Quebec participated.  Full results can be found under the Results tab on the menu.

This year the  CCWA 2024 is again open for entries from across Canada and will take place on May 4, 2024.  In addition to the wine competition, wineries that submit a wine into the CCWA will also be eligible to have a representative (e.g. winemaker) participate in a separate blind tasting (with other representatives) of submitted wines to identify the wines they consider worthy of Winemakers’ Select recognition. 

Lastly, the wines submitted by a winery are also eligible (at no extra cost) to be evaluated for the newly created Cold Climate Wine Indication (CCWI).  

The purpose of the CCWI is to recognize, celebrate, showcase and promote quality wines made form 100% cold climate grapes grown in areas with cold winters and to provide assurance that wine made from 100% cold climate grapes is of good quality.  Judges will undertake a sensory evaluation of each wine on its merit and will determine if it is without unacceptable faults or defects.  The winery will be provided with a copy of the sensory evaluation of the judges.  If the cold climate wine meets the criteria for the CCWI it will be permitted to use the indication sticker or logo on the approved wine.