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 CCWA is the only wine awards that focuses solely on 100% cold climate grapes and wines!
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.
In 2025, the CCWA went international and was co-hosted with wines from Canada and United States eligible for entry. United States entries were evaluated by the judges on May 6, 2025, at Thousand Islands Winery in Alexandria Bay, NY and Canadian entries were evaluated by the same judges on May 8, 2025, at Stonehouse Vineyard in Lochiel, ON. There were 31 Canadian entries from nine wineries in Ontario and Quebec, and 39 entries from 10 wineries in the United States.
The 2026 CCWA will again be co-hosted by Stonehouse Vineyard (May 5, 2026), and Thousand Islands Winery (May 7, 2026).
In addition to the wine competition, wineries that submit a wine in the CCWA are 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.
In 2023, entries in the CCWA became eligible (at no extra cost) to be evaluated for the recentlycreated Cold Climate Wine Indication (CCWI) certification. In 2023 and 2024, several wineries in Canada and the United States have adopted the CCWI certification.
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 certified to use the indication sticker and logo on the approved wine.
