Lincoln vineyard wins Winery of the Year at Canadian awards

A Lincoln winery is showing that their “Best in Show” win at the prestigious 2021 Decanter Wine Awards in London, England, considered the largest and most influential wine competition in the world, was no mistake.

Last week, Beamville’s Hidden Bench Estate Winery captured top honours at the 2023 National Wine Awards of Canada, winning the Winery of the Year.

Now 20 years old, Hidden Bench took the Canadian top spot based on collecting 12 medals in total at the event – two platinums, five golds, and five silvers.

“We are extremely pleased and proud to be named Canadian Winery of the Year at the 2023 National Wine Awards of Canada,” said winery owner Harald Thiel in a statement.

“This recognition highlights the commitment of our passionate vineyard and winery teams to craft world-class wines that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best from any other international wine region. It is incredibly rewarding to see that our certified sustainable and organic, terroir-driven, and 100 per cent estate approach to winegrowing has been acknowledged by the judges of NWAC as amongst the best in the country.”

The winery has come close in a smaller category during previous years but, according to winealign.com, with over 10,000 cases produced last year, it qualified for the top prize, which recognizes quality across a broad range of wines.

“The most important decision I ever made was my first one,” Thiel told winealign.com during an interview after the NWAC judging. “I decided that I would always be an estate winery using Beamsville Bench fruit.”

“If you don’t control your own fruit, you just can’t control quality as well. In some difficult years where harvests were poor, I really had to question this decision, but we hung in there.”