2026 Decanter World Wine Awards

Canada's presence at the very top remains small in absolute terms, and at the Platinum level, it remains a sweet-wine story. Both of Canada's Platinum medals went to Vidal-based Icewines from Niagara, from Peller Estates and Pillitteri Estates. That is a familiar pattern. For two decades, when Canada has reached the international podium, it has usually done so with Icewine.

The more interesting signal sits one tier down. Canada took 13 Gold medals this year, and five of them went to dry reds, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, with Chardonnay also featuring strongly. Niagara is starting to be recognised on the world stage for the table wines we actually build our days around, not only for the dessert wine in the freezer. Set against France's 254, the scale is humbling. Set against Canada's own history, things are looking pretty good.

Year over year, Canada's top tier was steady: two Platinums again, the same as 2025, when they went to Reif Estate and Inniskillin, both again Icewine. Across the wider field, Ontario's total medal count has eased, from 209 in 2024 to 193 in 2025, with the full 2026 provincial tally still being compiled. The clearer movement is qualitative: the growth is in the dry-wine categories climbing into the Gold band, not in raw medal volume. That is exactly the direction a cool-climate region wants to be moving.

Read as a performance curve, that line would mislead anyone. It is not a story of winning more, or of slipping in the lean years. It is a story of how we choose to enter. We sat out 2023 entirely. In 2022 we entered only two wines, both chosen for a push into the UK market. This year we held our two Estate wines back from the competition because we are selling out of them. There is no need to spend an entry on a wine that is already flying out of the cellar!

What does not move is the quality band. Look at every Silver medal Westcott has earned, in 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026, every year we entered, and the scores sit at 90 to 92, every time. Five years, rotating wines and vintages, a blind international panel, and the level never wavers. That is the thing we are proudest of, and it is the measure we actually trust; a standard held, year after year, across whatever we put on the table.

Three styles, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and sparkling, from two estate sites, all judged blind, with nothing bought. We won't dress this up as something it isn't: none of these is a Gold, and Gold begins at 95. But we have never chased a single trophy wine, and we don't intend to start. A range of wines, from two distinct terroirs, holding a consistent standard across rotating vintages: that is what we strive for, and it is what a blind panel of Masters of Wine confirmed again this year.

Earlier anchors: Estate Chardonnay earned Decanter Bronze in both 2012 and 2013.