News

Announcing British Columbia Wine Awards Wine and Winery of the Year

Kelowna, BC - The Okanagan Spring Wine Festival launched on Friday night with the presentation of the 2026 British Columbia Wine Awards Top 50.

The highly anticipated event marked the first public tasting of the coveted BC TOP 50 wines. Positioned as a Buyer’s Guide for fans of BC wine, the TOP 50 were announced at the British Columbia Wine Awards Celebration. The event was held at Manteo Resort where the BC wine industry gathered to honour the award-winning 2026 BC wines.

 The BC TOP 50 has been heavily guarded since the judges wrapped up the competition April 23^rd. Building off the last two year’s success, 9 highly respected local judges, including Rhys Pender, Mike Lee, Barb Wild, blind tasted the wine submission, and scored to produce the list of BC’s TOP 50 wines, including the highest score named the Wine of the Year.

New this year, an additional category was added naming Winery of the Year. This was awarded to the winery that had the highest average score of their top five wines.

The fifty winning wines, including the Wine of the Year, and Winery of the Year were presented with their commemorative Riedel decanters by Presenting Partner ContainerWorld Manager of Business Development, Flavia Aarden-Kilger. "ContainerWorld continues to support the Okanagan Wine Festivals and the BC Wine Awards. We are proud of BC wineries and honoured to be a part of this ever-growing, exciting, and evolving industry. The Okanagan Wine Festivals and BC Wine Awards showcase the best of your wines. These awards put BC wines in the spotlight. Congratulations to all the winners,” said Aarden-Kilger.

The prestigious Wine of the Year award is presented to the highest-scoring wine that the esteemed panel of judges unanimously chooses to bestow the honour. This year, the recipient of the Wine of the Year was awarded to Laughing Stock Vineyards in Penticton for their 2023 Syrah, and also gained the award for Winery of the Year.  

The Okanagan Spring Festival continues this week with their second event on May 2^nd the Spring Invitational: Wine Edition, hosted at Okanagan Golf Club, along with multiple events held at member wineries.

For full list of winners, click here