Earlier this month I had the pleasure of visiting CheckMate Artisanal Winery and catching-up with Natasha Sadowy, Experience Curator.
Natasha toured me around the construction of their new facility, which is well underway. The new building has been designed by Tom Kundig and will include a winemaking facility, barrel room, tasting room and spaces for intimate events. The structure incorporates part of the original building from Domaine Combret, which was built in the early nineties. Burrowed into the side of a hill, the Domaine Combret building was designed to produce wines with the use of gravity. I was lucky to get a sneak-peak at an artist’s rendering of the new project and I can tell you that the new building, which is slated to open next year, will be spectacular.
The CheckMate team has also been working extra hard in the vineyard this year. They have just completed some Chardonnay plantings at their home vineyard on the Golden Mile Bench. Once the new plantings become mature, winemaker, Phil McGahan, will have access to several new Chardonnay clones. He is looking forward to having more clonal diversity in the CheckMate portfolio as a result of these plantings.
This summer CheckMate also launched a new membership program. Membership will include shipments of six or twelve bottles of wine twice per year as well as perks, which include early access to new releases, like their 2015 Chardonnays.
The reputation of Chardonnay has come quite a ways since the phrase “ABC” or “Anything but Chardonnay” was coined, and I am excited to be able to share with you my tasting notes for the 2015 Capture and 2015 Queen’s Advantage. These wines were pre-released to Wine Club Members this summer and have just been released to the general public for sale this week. The remainder of the 2015 Chardonnays will be released in limited quantities over the coming year, and members may see a few more in their fall shipment.
2015 Queen’s Advantage $85
14.4% ABV // TA 5.51 g/l // pH 3.34 // 8 Barrels
Queen’s Advantage is made using the oldest block of Chardonnay at CheckMate. These vines are located at the home vineyard on the Golden Mile Bench and they were planted in 1973, making them the oldest Chardonnay vines in British Columbia.
These old, gnarly vines are visible directly to your right as soon as you enter the gate to CheckMate. The vines were previously expressed as one of five sites in the 2014 Fool’s Mate Chardonnay, but 2015 will be their debut as a single vineyard wine. The 2015 Queen’s Advantage was aged for 16 months in 100% French Oak (48% new) with 43% wild ferment.
On the nose I find aromas of lemon shortbread, crushed gravel, peach pits, pineapple core, papaya, coconut and vanilla. This outstanding wine has such a silky, round and elegant mouthfeel. The palate offers flavours of lemon drops, lemon curd spread on toast, lemon flavoured Greek yogurt, bruised apples and clove, with a long, lingering finish.
2015 Capture $90
14.1% ABV // TA 5.54 g/l // pH 3.26 // 8 Barrels
The grapes for this wine hail from the Border Vista Vineyard on the Osoyoos East Bench near the Canada-US border. This wine has undergone 64% wild fermentation and it has spent 16 months in 100% French oak (54% new).
The 2015 Capture has aromas of crushed gravel, buttery pastry, fresh lemon, green apple and hazelnut. The palate is round and silky, just like Queen’s Advantage, but the aromas and flavours express themselves more delicately. The palate offers a sense of minerality with green apples. The mid palate reminds me of a cream cheese danish from one of my favourite, local, French bakeries: a delicious cheesecake-like filling, surrounded by perfectly laminated pastry, and glazed with apricot jam. The pastry carries through to the long finish where it meets notes of yeast, mandarin peel and vanilla.
CheckMate Artisanal Winery
www.checkmatewinery.com
4799 Wild Rose Street
Oliver, BC
V0H 1T1
(250) 707-2299
Sources
Schreiner, J. The Wineries of British Columbia. North Vancouver, BC: Whitecap, 2004.