Canadas Best Wines 2021: Pinot Noir

Over the past 30 years, Pinot Noir has emerged as the red grape of choice for countless quality-focused Canadian vintners. It thrives in our cool climates and varied clay, limestone soils. It has a noble lineage and enjoys worldwide recognition. It is easy to see the appeal. The historic divide of fruit-driven styles from the Okanagan versus restrained, taut Ontario Pinot Noir is a thing of the past. Our tasting revealed elegant, pure-fruited Pinots from Vancouver Island, Kelowna, Naramata Bench, Prince Edward County, Niagara’s bench lands and beyond.

Yet it is still early days in our journey toward mastering this notoriously finicky grape. Too many top-tier bottlings still display lavish oak, overwhelming the grape’s delicacy. Conversely, numerous lean, austere Pinot Noirs redolent with volatile acidity plague the category. In short, promising Canadian Pinot Noirs are cropping up from coast to coast, but watch out for wide stylistic diversity. —JACKIE BLISSON, MW