About ccwa
The Cold Climate Wine Awards (CCWA) celebrates, showcases, and promotes wines made from 100% cold climate grapes grown, vinified, and bottled in Canada and the United States.
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 2023 and 2024 CCWAs were open to wineries from across Canada. Wineries producing wine from 100% cold climate grapes from the Ottawa Valley, Erie North Shore, Prince Edward County and Quebec participated.
This year the CCWA 2025 is going international, and will be co-hosted, with entries from Canada and United States being eligible. United States entries will be evaluated by the judges on May 6, 2025, at Thousand Islands Winery in Alexandria Bay, NY and Canadian entries will be evaluated by the same judges on May 8, 2025, at Stonehouse Vineyard in Lochiel, ON.
In addition to the wine competition, wineries that submit a wine in 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 special recognition as Winemakers’ Select.
Entries are also eligible (at no extra cost) to be evaluated for the recently 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 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. If the cold climate wine meets the criteria for the CCWI it will be permitted to use the indication sticker and logo on the approved wine.

