World-Class Canadian Wines for Canada Day – As aired on CTV and CFRA – June 19, 2026

As Canadians prepare to celebrate Canada Day, there has never been a better time to explore the remarkable wines being produced right here at home.

For my 2026 Canadian wine segments on CTV Your Morning and CFRA News Talk Radio, I’m showcasing a selection of top Canadian wines from some of the country’s most impressive wine regions across Ontario and British Columbia. Together, these wines tell a powerful story about the strength, diversity, and world-class quality of Canadian wine today. Check out the CTV segment here and CFRA interview here.

Canadian wine is no longer just an emerging story. It is a success story.

Across the country, and particularly in regions such as Prince Edward County, Niagara, and British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, wineries are producing wines with freshness, balance, elegance, complexity, and a true sense of place. These are the qualities that define many of the world’s greatest wines, and they are increasingly the qualities wine enthusiasts associate with Canadian wine.

These wines highlight why Canada is now recognized as one of the most exciting cool-climate wine-producing countries in the world.

That reputation continues to grow well beyond our borders. In fact, Canada’s cool-climate wines have earned such international recognition that each July, wineries, sommeliers, wine writers, and wine enthusiasts from around the world come to Niagara for the International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration, known as i4C. It’s one of the world’s great gatherings devoted to Chardonnay and cool-climate wine, where many of Canada’s top wineries showcase their impressive wines alongside peers from other storied wine regions around the globe. Full program details available here: www.coolchardonnay.org

From traditional method sparkling wine and elegant Chardonnay to expressive Pinot Noir and age-worthy red blends, Canadian wineries are producing wines with freshness, balance, complexity, and a true sense of place.

Canada’s Wine Superpower: Cool-Climate Viticulture

Canada’s wine superpower is cool-climate viticulture.

Our growing conditions allow grapes to ripen slowly while preserving natural acidity, aromatic intensity, freshness, and structure. The result is wines that are vibrant, refreshing, food-friendly, and beautifully balanced. In a wine world increasingly seeking elegance over excess, Canadian wines are exceptionally well positioned.

This is especially true for varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, sparkling wine, Cabernet Franc, and increasingly, premium red blends from the Okanagan Valley.

But climate is only part of the story. Canada’s geology is equally important.

From the limestone-rich vineyards of Prince Edward County and Niagara to the glacial soils, gravel, sand, clay, and dramatic vineyard sites of the Okanagan Valley, Canadian wine regions have the natural foundations required to produce wines of real complexity and distinction. These soils and sites contribute minerality, texture, freshness, and regional identity.

The best wines do not simply taste good. They taste somewhere. Increasingly, Canadian wines do exactly that.

Ontario: Limestone, Freshness, and Cool-Climate Precision

Ontario remains one of the great engines of Canadian wine. It excels with cool-climate varieties such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, sparkling wine, and Cabernet Franc. The wines are increasingly elegant, terroir-driven, and expressive, with freshness and structure that make them both enjoyable today and capable of graceful aging.

Here are my list of must-try premium Canadian wines:

Closson Chase South Clos Pinot Noir 2023 – available winery-direct

Prince Edward County, Ontario

Prince Edward County has become one of Canada’s premier regions for Pinot Noir, and Closson Chase has long been one of its benchmark producers.

The South Clos Pinot Noir 2023 is a refined and expressive example of what the County does so well. Grown in a cool climate with limestone-rich soils, it shows the elegance, freshness, and finesse that make Prince Edward County such an exciting region for Pinot Noir.

Expect expressive aromas of dark fruit, cocoa, roasted coffee, violet, and spice, leading to a graceful palate with red fruit, polished acidity, fine tea-like tannins, and a long, elegant finish.

This is not a heavy red wine. It is a wine of nuance, texture, and refinement. It shows why Canadian Pinot Noir is increasingly being taken seriously by wine lovers across the country and around the world. 94 points.

Organized Crime Break-In Pinot Noir 2023 – available winery-direct

Beamsville Bench, Niagara Escarpment, Ontario

Niagara is Canada’s largest and most internationally recognized wine region, and the Beamsville Bench is one of its most celebrated sub-appellations.

Organized Crime’s Break-In Pinot Noir 2023 is a vibrant, cool-climate Pinot Noir built around freshness, energy, and savoury detail. Notes of bramble, bright cherry, pomegranate, sweet tobacco leaf, cumin, and spice give the wine both lift and complexity.

What makes this wine so interesting beside the Prince Edward County Pinot Noir is how clearly the two wines express different places. Both are Canadian Pinot Noir. Both are cool-climate. Yet each tells a distinct regional story.

That is one of the most exciting signs of maturity in Canadian wine today: our regions are developing recognizable identities of their own.

British Columbia: Diversity, Resilience, and Okanagan Excellence

British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley is one of the most exciting wine regions in North America.

Stretching through a remarkable range of landscapes, elevations, soils, and microclimates, the Okanagan is not defined by one grape or one style. Its strength is its diversity.

The valley can produce refined sparkling wine, elegant Chardonnay, expressive Pinot Noir, aromatic white wines, Italian-inspired varieties, and powerful, age-worthy red blends. Few regions in North America can deliver that kind of range at such a high level.

The Okanagan has also faced major challenges in recent years, including wildfires, extreme weather, and winter freezes. Yet the industry has shown remarkable resilience. The wines being produced today demonstrate confidence, precision, and an increasingly clear sense of place.

Noble Ridge “The One” Sparkling Wine 2019 – available winery-direct

Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Canadian sparkling wine is one of the country’s great success stories, and Noble Ridge’s “The One” 2019 is an impressive example of why.

Produced in Okanagan Falls using the traditional method, the same process used in Champagne, this sparkling wine shows how well Canada’s cool climate can support wines of freshness, finesse, and precision.

Made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and aged extensively on the lees, it offers fine bubbles, citrus blossom, lemon zest, orchard fruit, brioche, almond, bright acidity, and a precise mineral finish.

This is the kind of sparkling wine that surprises people when they first learn it comes from Canada. It has elegance, complexity, and real aging potential. 93+ points.

Hester Creek Old Vine Trebbiano 2025

Golden Mile Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia – available winery-direct

As someone who loves Italian wine, I find it particularly exciting to see such an impressive expression of Trebbiano coming from the Okanagan Valley.

Trebbiano is one of Italy’s most important and widely planted white grape families, long valued for producing fresh, crisp, citrus-driven, food-friendly wines. In the right hands, particularly from older vines and strong vineyard sites, it can deliver wines with texture, freshness, minerality, and real personality.

Hester Creek’s Old Vine Trebbiano 2025 comes from the winery’s historic Golden Mile Bench estate and shows lifted aromas of melon, pear, citrus rind, honeysuckle, and lemon cream. It is refreshing, distinctive, and highly food-friendly.

More and more, we are seeing Italian varieties appear in the Okanagan, with wineries experimenting and succeeding with impressive wines inspired by Italy while still expressing a distinctly Canadian sense of place.

This wine is a great example of Canadian wineries not simply following global trends. They are exploring varieties that thrive in their own vineyard sites and producing wines that are fresh, balanced, distinctive, and exciting.

Azhadi Vineyards Chardonnay 2023 – available winery-direct

Okanagan Falls Vineyard, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Chardonnay has become one of Canada’s great international calling cards, and Azhadi Vineyards is quickly becoming one of the Okanagan Valley’s hottest new wineries and fine dining destinations.

Located in Kelowna, Azhadi is much more than a winery to watch. It is a must-see destination for anyone visiting the Okanagan this year, with stunning, architecturally mind-blowing facilities, an elevated hospitality experience, and unparalleled views across the valley and Okanagan Lake.

The Azhadi Vineyards Chardonnay 2023 comes from an Okanagan Falls vineyard and shows exactly why this young winery is already generating so much excitement. This is a poised and elegant Chardonnay where a light touch of oak enhances refreshing orchard fruit and subtle tropical notes. It is refined, balanced, and polished, with freshness and texture working together beautifully.

The best Canadian Chardonnays combine richness with freshness rather than sacrificing balance for power. That is exactly what makes them so appealing. They are generous without being heavy, elegant without being thin, and structured enough to pair beautifully with food.

This wine is a great example of why Canadian Chardonnay is increasingly being taken seriously by wine lovers and critics. And if you are in Kelowna or planning a trip out west this year, Azhadi is absolutely a winery and culinary destination to experience firsthand. 93 points.

Hester Creek The Judge 2022 – available winery-direct

Golden Mile Bench, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

To finish, we move to one of British Columbia’s iconic premium red wines.

The Golden Mile Bench is one of Canada’s great sites for serious red wines, producing fruit with ripeness, structure, and complexity while retaining energy and freshness.

Hester Creek’s The Judge 2022 is a flagship Bordeaux-inspired red blend from the Golden Mile Bench. It shows the depth, complexity, and aging potential possible in the South Okanagan.

Expect dark fruit, sage, spice, graphite, cedar, cocoa, dark cherry, and polished structure. It is powerful and detailed, yet still shows the freshness and balance that define great Canadian wine. It is a wine of power, but also of fine detail and polish. 95 points.

This is often the type of wine that changes perceptions. For anyone who still does not realize how serious Canadian fine wine has become, The Judge offers a convincing answer in the glass.

Canadian Wine Has Arrived

The story of Canadian wine in 2026 is no longer about potential. It is about achievement.

Ontario and British Columbia have become Canada’s superpowers for world-class wine, but the broader message extends across the country. Canadian wineries are producing wines that are refreshing, balanced, complex, food-friendly, age-worthy, and increasingly sought after by wine enthusiasts across Canada and around the world.

From traditional method sparkling wine and elegant Chardonnay to expressive Pinot Noir, distinctive whites, and powerful red blends, Canadian wine has never been better.

These wines are proudly Canadian, and they show just how exciting our wine industry has become.

This Canada Day, support local. Drink Canadian. Explore the wines being produced in our own backyard. Discover why the world is paying more attention to what Canada is putting in the glass.

Cheers to world-class Canadian wine.

Matt