OTTAWA, January 30, 2026 — Tonight at Ottawa’s Rogers Centre, 300 guests at the Canadian Culinary Championship (CCC) sipped on a mysterious wine, as they sampled chef creations at the Mystery Wine Competition. The chefs were also in the dark about the mystery wine’s identity, even though they had been given an unlabelled bottle of it on Thursday evening, and had spent 24 hours designing and preparing a dish to pair with it.
This was the first of three competitions held in Ottawa to crown the Canadian Culinary Champion. The Mystery Wine was selected by CCC National Wine Advisor David Lawrason. “Last year we chose an obscure Niagara white wine made from the semillon grape that is used in white Bordeaux. This year I wanted to return to a light bodied red – a style Canada does very well, and a style that gives the chefs latitude to pair with a wider range of dishes.”
The Mystery Wine Reception also offered guests the chance to taste several other incredible wines, including seven from the acclaimed Grimsby Hillside Vineyard, never before tasted together. They included wines by Bachelder, Mason Vineyard, Fogolar, Leaning Post, Divergence, Maened, and Trail Estate.
Go Gamay Go!
At the end of the event, Mr. Lawrason revealed the wine to be Malivoire Gamay 2024. Gamay, which is the variety used in Beaujolais, France, is a grape on the go these days in Canada, now growing coast to coast. Niagara’s Malivoire Wine Company is a leading proponent making four different editions. The wine enjoyed this night is widely available in LCBO Vintages stores.
“I’m very proud to present our Malivoire Gamay at this wonderful competition. Gamay is such a vibrant and fruity wine that goes with so many different food options and is perfect for the diversity of Canadian cuisine. I’m so excited that we are putting Canadian food culture on the map with this wine” says Shiraz Mottiar, Team Principal at Malivoire.
The culinary judges scored each chef’s dish pairings with the Mystery Wine, but will not reveal the overall winner until the Grand Finale Saturday night. With the first competition complete, the chefs head to La Cité Collégiale on Saturday morning for the high-pressure “Black Box” challenge, where they have one hour to identify seven mystery ingredients and prepare two dishes for the judging panel, before moving on to the Rogers Centre to begin preparations for their signature dishes ahead of the Canadian Culinary Championship Grand Finale, taking place tomorrow, January 31 at 6:15 p.m. As the chefs go all out for the finale, guests will enjoy an outstanding selection of classic and emerging Ontario wines from leading Niagara wineries – including Bachelder, Mason Vineyard, MW Cellars, Domaine Queylus, Two Sisters, Wending Home, and newcomers York Vineyard, Perenelle, and Stone Eagle – as well as celebrated County producers Closson Chase, Rosehall Run, Hinterland, Grange of Prince Edward, HUFF Estate, LochMor CiderHouse, and new addition Volta Estate.
ABOUT CANADIAN CULINARY CHAMPIONSHIP (CCC)
The Canadian Culinary Championship is an annual national event in Ottawa. The winning chefs from ten different regional qualifiers (called Canada’s Great Kitchen Party) are flown in to compete in three challenging and entertaining competitions: Mystery Wine, Black Box, and the Finale. To be invited to compete locally is a notch in the belt. To win the regional gold and be on the podium is a significant achievement. To be eligible to compete against each regional gold winner at the national competition the following year is a thrill. To be crowned the top chef in Canada at the Canadian Culinary Championship is a career changer!
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