The pops heard on Friday afternoon at the Palomino Room inside the BMO Centre were a little less gunfight at the O.K. Corral and a little more showdown at the Stampede Corral.

With corks undone, and hundreds of bottles of wine poured, the Calgary Stampede marked their inaugural Cellar Showdown, pitting the best wines sold in Alberta against the palates of local, and national wine suppliers, retailers, and restauranteurs.

The aim of the competition, which took place from Feb. 23 through 25, was to celebrate and showcase the agricultural side of the Calgary Stampede along with giving a boost to Canada’s viticulture industry.

Will Osler, President and Chair of the Calgary Stampede—who also served as one of the handful of celebrity judges over the weekend—said that the competition was going to show Calgarians and Albertans a side of the Stampede that they hadn’t seen before.

“It’s great to be doing something fresh and new… if this was a cold beer competition, that would fit a lot of people, but this is something a little bit different. We know the Stampede family and our supporters, and this will resonate with them. They’ll enjoy it,” Osler said.

“[Agriculture] is at the heart of everything we do. There would be no Stampede without agriculture, and the Stampede connects people in the industry. We support them in every way we can, and this is a big part of that.”

The competition was headed up by the chair of the Showdown Committee, Peggy Perry, who has brought her decades of considerable experience in the wine trade to the Showdown.

Perry was recognized as a Commandeur of the Commanderie de Bordeaux for her special relationship with the region and its wines in 2017.

Speaking on the competition, she said that it was an opportunity for winemakers to have their wines in front of some of Alberta’s biggest purchasers through the judging.

“There are 566 bottles of wine, and they come from all over the world. We have a pretty strong Canadian showing—about 20 per cent—and we have some really interesting Alberta wines made from fruit. We also have mead, and so it’s a pretty eclectic lineup but also a lot of really high-quality wines,” Perry said.

Judging the best in Alberta from around the world

Judges scored for the categories of red wine, white wine, sparkling wine, dessert wine, fortified wine, and top fruit or flavoured wine, with phase one of judging giving out gold, silver, and bronze medals for the finest wines based on the Cellar Showdown judging rubric.

Perry said that there was also a Canadian category to recognize the best that is produced nationally.

“If you win in the category, you are able to get your gold medal or your silver medal duplicate to apply to the bottles of wine. So this should really help wineries with their marketing in retail locations, because a lot of people who shopped for wine, look for award-winning wines,” she said.

Co-owner of Charcut and well-known local restaurateur and entrepreneur John Jackson, who was also serving as a celebrity judge, said that Calgarians do place some importance on those awards.

“It is impactful to be able to tell the story about it, and along with the award comes a long history and story about the winemaker and how things were made. Calgarians are very educated and they like to know where things come from. They love to know the stories. So I think it’s important that we have those pieces to be able to explain to our guests when we’re going through and selecting what wines we have,” Jackson said.

“Being a part of this process allows us to be a part of these stories for these wineries. With these awards, maybe if we put them on our list, we can go back and tell the story from today, which is a nice connector.”

Commercial availability for the best wines from the competition is less maybe and more definitely. Those winning wines will also have a presence on the park for the 2024 Calgary Stampede.

“The competition is not the end of what is happening here today, it’s the beginning. Once you win in the competition, your wines are going to be featured on-park at a number of events and throughout the year, but the most important event is going to be on June 22, when [Stampede Cellar Uncorked] not only the winning wines, but beautiful small bites by some of Alberta’s best restaurants,” said Perry.

Uncorked will also be the first event that is held at the BMO Centre expansion after it is opened.

Something for the tastes of Calgarians

Connie DeSousa, co-owner of Charcut and the team captain for the celebrity judges, said that it can be very different to taste a wine without a label and that there had been surprises aplenty.

“There are a lot of surprises that that we really liked and on the other end of the spectrum, so I think we’re all really curious to know what we tasted and we’re excited to see the labels once they once they’re exposed,” she said.

At the initial announcement for the Cellar Showdown, Calgary Stampede CEO Joel Cowley said that the hope was that the winners would be reflective of the Calgary palate.

Gail Norton, co-owner of The Cookbook Co., and a fixture in the Calgary food scene for four decades, said she wasn’t sure that there was such a thing as the Calgary palate given how sophisticated Calgary wine drinkers have been.

“We have such a fantastic wine scene in Calgary, which is second to none in Canada—it’s very international and very sophisticated. So it’s very cool that it’s been exaggerated, and saturated with events like this,” Norton said.

Broadcaster Kelly Hrudey said that it was with the help of people like Norton and DeSousa, that he was taking his everyday wine enjoyment to a different level as a celebrity judge.

“To really experience a wine you have to learn about it, and I was leaning on Gail in particular about what you want to look for. So for me whenever I have a glass of wine from now on, and I was telling Will [Osler] this, it’ll change the way in which I have my first sip and what I think of.”

Winning wines are set to be revealed on Feb. 27.