In my previous article, I posted The 2023 British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Wine Awards results. But that is just a list. I was curious to dig deeper into the awards and find out which grape varieties were the most popular. Here is a data analysis of the results from the Platinum, Gold, and Silver awards combined.
We are a cool climate region as you can see that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir star in the top positions for most awarded wines. It is interesting to see that only two Merlots were awarded as single-varietal wines. Most likely the Merlots were part of the Meritage and Red Blend counts. Below this list is a map showing the winery locations as a heat map.
| Grape Variety Or Style | Count |
| Chardonnay | 17 |
| Pinot Noir | 16 |
| Cabernet Sauvignon | 14 |
| Syrah/Shiraz | 11 |
| Riesling | 11 |
| Meritage (red and white combined) | 11 |
| Cabernet Franc | 7 |
| Malbec | 4 |
| Gewürztraminer | 6 |
| Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio | 5 |
| Sauvignon Blanc | 4 |
| Gamay | 3 |
| Rosé | 3 |
| Viognier | 3 |
| Zweigelt | 1 |
| Auxerrois | 1 |
| Siegerrebe | 1 |
| Vidal | 1 |
| Gruner Veltliner | 1 |
| Merlot | 2 |
| Cabernet Foch | 1 |
| White Blend | 4 |
| Red Blend | 1 |
| Fruit wine | 2 |
| Icewine | 2 |
| Sparkling | 6 |
A Simple Heat Map
I also created a simple heat map showing the location of the wineries. Yellow = more wineries. Grey = few wineries. Red = moderate number of wineries. Note, I only used the winery name one time on the map. If a winery won 4 medals, I did not plot that location 4 times. It would have made the heat map a little more accurate, but I had limited access to online GIS mapping tools.
