CheckMate Artisanal Winery is thrilled to be celebrating their two year anniversary of the Installation Pop-up by tom Kundig with the highly anticipated release of our 2018 Bear’s Move Chardonnay.
This unique, Pied de Cuve wine is CheckMate’s only unoaked expression of Chardonnay. A modern take on tradition, naturally fermented in ceramic Clayver vessels placed in the Dekleva Vineyard. This wine shows great tropical fruite character, texture and fresh acidity.
Since its first release in 2017, the Tasting Room Exclusive Bear’s Move Chardonnay has become a favourite. Completely produced, bottled and labelled by hand, the team all partake in making this special release. With only 40 cases produced, there is no better time to plan a visit to CheckMate.
The Installation Turns Two
Friday, July 26th – Sunday, July 28th
Celebrate CheckMate’s second anniversary with the release of Bear’s Move Chardonnay
Complimentary Vineyard Tours with your Tasting 12:00 – 4:00 pm daily this weekend only!
A little history – Bear’s Move Chardonnay
The sweet aromas of fermentation attracted many a visitor, even an adolescent bear. Little did he know the fermenting CO2 gases that lay waiting when he swiped out the fermentation bung to smell the honeypot… scaring the bear off.
But not before he left his mark. Small paw prints of our black bear visitor, gave this special wine its remarkable story, and its namesake: Bear’s Move.
2016 Bear’s Move – First Edition, this special Chardonnay was crafted in the vineyard and is CheckMate’s most natural wine.
Seven days before harvesting the famous Dekleva Vineyard adjacent to the estate, selected clusters were picked, placed in a clay jar, stomped by foot and left in the vineyard to start fermenting. This classic method is known as pied-de-cuve. Once the block was harvested, the fruit pressed and drained into a 250L ceramic vessel, it was transported by tractor back to its home – amongst the vines in the Dekleva Vineyard – where the pied-de-cuve was hand squeezed into the vessel to provide the natural starter for fermentation.
When visiting BC Wine Country, before you go: Do your homework and a bit of research about the wineries you wish to visit. Check the winery website to find out their months, days and hours that their Tasting Room is open. Know if you need to book your tasting in advance of your visit. Many wineries are now so busy there may be times that they are unable to accommodate you. It will be a much better visit if you have a confirmed appointment. Be on time. Expect to pay for your tasting, some, but not all wineries refund all or a portion of the fee if you purchase wine. Plan ahead for a designated driver or use the services of a wine tour company. Limit the number of wineries you visit in a day. A more leisurely timeline will increase your enjoyment. For the best overall experience, I like to limit my daily visits to three, maximum two wineries if a winery lunch is on the agenda.
Winemaker
AUSTRALIAN-BORN LAWYER TURNED INTELLECTUAL WINEMAKER, PHILIP MCGAHAN, left Williams Selyem in the Russian River Valley, Sonoma, to take up the challenge at CheckMate Artisanal Winery. At CheckMate, everything is tended to by hand: all the canopy management, leaf-pulling and cluster-thinning is done manually to ensure precision and gentleness.
Phil set out to make sophisticated Chardonnays and Merlots by meticulously focusing on family-owned and farmed estate vineyards, relentlessly studying and researching rows within them to define micro-blocks. These sites, natural yeasts and artisanal winemaking resulted in a collection of remarkable Chardonnays and outstanding Merlots. He let nature take its course, with no fining or filtration to allow for the full potential of flavour expression.
Years in the making
Behind closed doors, a daring initiative took place over the past four years. The goal: To make new world Chardonnay and Merlot with old world elegance in North America.
This did not happen over night
The von Mandl family began their journey over 40 years ago. The first sign of the real potential of the vineyards came in 1994 with a surprise win at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in London for ‘Top Chardonnay in the World.’ The family has developed exceptional vineyards with distinctive Chardonnay and Merlot clones, some of which are now over 40 years old, at what are now CheckMate Artisanal Winery vineyards.
The region is the ecologically pristine Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, north of the 49th parallel and 105 miles long. Glacial fed lakes stretch along a narrow valley floor at an altitude of more than 1200 feet. As the world warms, cool regions such as the Okanagan Valley provide a new frontier for world class Chardonnay and Merlot. Cooler regions are now consistently providing sufficient warmth during their growing seasons to fall within the climatic envelopes for these classic Burgundian and Bordeaux varietals.
Information and images courtesy of CheckMate. Bottle shot image provided by Natasha Sadowy, Checkmate. The “history” of Bear’s Move Chardonnay is from a feature first published on MyVanCity on August 30, 2017.
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