As Ontario marked Wine Week from June 15 to 19, Niagara College’s Teaching Winery added to the celebration with a series of major wins, including gold medals for two sparkling wines at competitions in Ontario and abroad.
The College earned a Decanter World Wine Awards Gold for its Dean’s List Blanc de Blancs (2019), while its Dean’s List Blanc de Noirs (2019) received double gold at the Ontario Wine Awards. The double gold win automatically qualifies the wine for the prestigious 2026 Lieutenant Governor Award for Excellence in Ontario Wines.
Along with the top sparkling honours, the Teaching Winery picked up five provincial medals. Silver medals were awarded to the Dean’s List Riesling (2025), Dean’s List Cabernet Sauvignon (2022), and Dean’s List Chardonnay (2025). Bronze medals went to the Dean’s List Cabernet Franc (2023) and the Balance Cabernet Rosé (2024).
“Taking home top honours from both the Decanter and the Ontario Wine Awards is a monumental achievement that proves our student-driven facility can compete with the finest commercial wineries anywhere,” said Gary Torraville, Senior Director, Enterprises at NC. “This isn’t just a win for our cellar; it is the ultimate testament to the power of applied learning. By working directly on world-class, award-winning vintages, our students gain an unmatched competitive edge and the elite skills required to lead the global beverage industry.”
Head Winemaker Allison Findlay, an alumna of NC’s Winery and Viticulture Technician program, said the recognition shines a spotlight on both the province and the College. Findlay noted that the Teaching Winery has been refining its sparkling program since 2012 under former Head Winemaker Gavin Robertson. Findlay took over the role in 2022 as the first female head winemaker at the facility.
“Since 2012, we have had a strong focus on teaching and crafting high-quality, terroir-driven, technical sparkling wines,” said Findlay. “These awards give worldwide recognition to the dedication that has been given to the wines and wine students for years.”
Robertson, now Professor and Coordinator for the Winery and Viticulture Technician program and also an NC alumnus, recalled how the cool and wet conditions during the 2019 growing season created challenges for traditional red winemaking but proved favourable for sparkling.
He said the success of the Blanc de Noirs, sourced from the Teaching Winery’s Concession 5 vineyard, and the Blanc de Blancs, sourced from a 1996 Chardonnay block on campus, is closely tied to NC’s learning enterprises model.
“Those sparklers are gifts that keep on giving,” said Robertson. “I specifically remember three separate early morning student picks to bring in the Pinot for the 2019 Blanc de Noirs.
“Students engage with both their own small-scale pilot projects and with the larger commercial lots, ensuring that they graduate with real-world skills and can adapt easily to industry realities.”
The Dean’s List Blanc de Blancs (2019) was announced as a gold medal winner at the Decanter World Wine Awards on June 17. The sparkling wine earned a score of 95, indicating an outstanding wine with great complexity and character.
Established in 2004 by the British wine magazine Decanter, the competition is known as the world’s largest and most influential wine assessment. The awards use a rigorous blind-tasting process judged by top international experts. This year, a panel of 245 leading wine professionals evaluated nearly 17,000 entries from around the globe.
The 2019 Dean’s List Blanc de Blancs is a traditional-method sparkling wine made from 100% Chardonnay grapes harvested from the Niagara College Teaching Vineyard, located on the St. David’s Bench Appellation. It features a pale lemon colour, a persistent mousse, notes of green apple, soft brioche, and subtle yeast, and a palate driven by minerality and fresh acidity.
“This wine was made in a cooler vintage, so there is beautiful natural acidity and great aging potential,” said Findlay. “At this point, the wine has been on the lees for 72 months and is still extremely fresh and youthful tasting, with just enough development to make it a complex sparkling.”
Staff at the Niagara College Craft Beverage Centre also celebrated the international recognition.
“Winning a gold medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards confirms that we are not only providing a world-class educational experience but also producing wines that can compete on the international stage,” said Amanda Baldinelli, Hospitality and Events Manager of the Niagara College Learning Enterprises. “It is a testament to the exceptional talent and dedication of our winemaking team and students.”
The Teaching Winery also earned six medals at the Ontario Wine Awards, held June 16 at George Brown’s Chef School in Toronto. Founded in 1995 by Order of Canada recipient Tony Aspler, the Ontario Wine Awards celebrate the very best VQA wines in the province.
NC’s Dean’s List Blanc de Noirs (2019) sparkling secured double gold. Produced from a single vineyard, vintage, and variety, the 100% Pinot Noir sparkling wine was aged for 54 months on the lees. The grapes were gently whole-cluster pressed to avoid any pick-up of colour or hard phenolics, fermented in stainless steel, and then placed in a 750 mL bottle for tirage, secondary fermentation, and aging.
The resulting wine is bright and straw-coloured with a toasty, apple nose. It is dry, medium-bodied, and long on the palate with a red apple flavour rounded with oak spice, finishing on a lemony note.
“This is a super fun wine in the portfolio,” said Findlay. “It is the partner to the 2019 Blanc de Blancs that received great recognition last year at the National Wine Awards, so I am glad to celebrate the Blanc de Noirs this year.”
Earlier this year, the Ontario Wine Awards announced a shared hosting partnership between George Brown Polytechnic and Niagara College. While this year’s event was held in Toronto, hosting duties will rotate annually between the two institutions, creating expanded opportunities for students to take part in mentored judging and gain hands-on experience behind the scenes of a premier wine competition.
Both gold-medal sparkling wines and the award-winning Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Rosé are currently available for purchase at the NC Craft Beverage Centre, formerly the Wine Visitor + Education Centre, at the Daniel J. Patterson Campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and online at nccraft.ca.
Visitors can also find a variety of other student-crafted products from the Teaching Winery, Teaching Brewery, and Teaching Distillery, all of which were the first facilities of their kind in Canada.
