Results from the 2025 Nationals – Winery of the Year

Mission Hill Family Estate

By Anthony Gismondi and David Lawrason

The Okanagan hilltop winery with the stunning vistas has returned to the top of the heap once again at the 2025 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada. It first happened when Mission Hill Family Estate took Winery of the Year honours at the inaugural awards in 2001 at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Twenty-five years later, they grabbed the ring for the sixth time, confirming a consistent commitment to excellence.

As with many of the wines we tasted last month, there is little resemblance between the level we assessed 25 years ago and what was presented at our tasting in Penticton, in the Okanagan Valley, this year. The overall level of quality and the number of producers in the race for the coveted “Winery of the Year” moniker was substantial. It also proves that competition breeds competition, ultimately resulting in better wines.

It would be easy to believe that the big wineries with endless resources should win the competition every year. Actually, by limiting the Winery of the Year title to a winery’s best-scoring five wines, the door is open to any number of wineries and outcomes each year.

At Mission Hill, it all comes down to caring about every aspect of growing and making wine, and it has proven itself to be in full command of its vineyards and winemaking for more than 40 years since owner Anthony von Mandl first acquired the West Kelowna mountaintop site in 1981.

The quality journey began when the taciturn New Zealand winemaker John Simes arrived in 1992. In those days, Mission Hill didn’t own any vineyards and relied on purchased grapes. Simes engaged growers, hoping to persuade them to become more involved in those vineyards, which back then were eschewing quality for quantity. He was soon shocked to learn that he was a rare bird, actually visiting vineyards and asking questions of growers who, for the most part, had never met with a winemaker/buyer before.

Almost immediately, Simes began racking up awards. In 1994, his 1992 Grand Reserve Chardonnay took the Avery Trophy for Best Chardonnay at the International Wine & Spirits Competition in London. That victory proved to be the catalyst for massive change. Mission Hill bought its first vineyards in 1996 and has now assembled more than 1,200 acres in five sub-regions of the Okanagan Valley. The following year, the first design of the grand $35-million dollar, Thomas Kundig-designed showpiece winery appeared. Kundig’s design would go on to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors and become a landmark of the Okanagan.

Simes had an incredible run before retiring in 2015. Under his watch, Mission Hill took Winery of the Year three more times — in 2007, 2013 and 2015. In 1997, he made the first vintage of Oculus, the merlot-based flagship red that is the most expensive red in Canada. He also made the first vintages of the Legacy Series wines: Perpetua Chardonnay, Compendium and Quatrain. In 2013, he made a wine that took the International Trophy for best pinot noir in the World at the Decanter World Wine Awards. And other international recognitions ensued.

In 2015, the head winemaker mantle passed to Australian Darryl Brooker, who arrived via five years at sister winery CedarCreek (purchased by Anthony Von Mandl in 2014). Brooker had worked several years in Niagara and New Zealand before that. And the beat went on. In 2017, Mission Hill began the massive transition to organic viticulture across its holdings, as vineyards continued to increase in size. In 2018, Brooker recruited his replacement, Ben Bryant, a fellow Australian who had been chief winemaker at Orlando Wines. And in 2019, Mission Hill won the National Wine Awards Winery of the Year for the fifth time.

In 2020, Corrie Krehbiel was promoted to head winemaker after five years assisting Brooker and Bryant in the cellar. Raised in Kelowna, her first summer job was at CedarCreek. She brought her considerable technical expertise to bear, as well as leadership in sustainability, as the vineyards were in conversion. She was particularly interested in developing the Terroir Series wines, high-end single vineyard wines from various sites throughout the Okanagan that shone at this year’s awards.

In 2023, the current winemaker, Taylor Whelan, moved across the lake from CedarCreek, fresh off earning CedarCreek the Winery of the Year title in 2022. Like his predecessors, he had winemaking experience in New Zealand, Australia and Niagara, and was very keen on advancing viticulture science, sustainability and low-intervention winemaking. He didn’t make any of the wines that propelled Mission Hill to its sixth title here in 2025, but there is always next year.

This year, Mission Hill entered 11 top-tier wines, earning two Platinum medals, five Golds and one Silver medal. The 2022 Perpetua Chardonnay grabbed one of the Platinum medals. It is a wine that has been on an upward trajectory for several years now under a program that has refined the body, increased the acidity and generally tightened up the wine. The second Platinum medal was awarded to the 2022 Terroir Collection Cabernet Franc, recognized for consistently strong performances as the viticulture and winemaking teams have identified and cultivated prime locations throughout the Okanagan.

Among the five Gold medals, top honours went to the winery’s flagship 2021 Oculus, the 2023 Terroir Collection Chardonnay, and the 2022 Terroir Collection Cabernet Sauvignon. Two wines — Compendium 2020 and Quatrain 2020 — won gold in the Library Wines category. (Library wines did not count toward Winery of the Year standing.)

The entire team at WineAlign sends its congratulations and a tip of the cap to everyone at Mission Hill Family Estate who has been part of the story, past, present and future.

Here are all the NWAC 2025 Mission Hill medal winners: