Setting the Board
In the geologically dynamic Okanagan Valley, ancient glaciers carved out crystalline lakes in a narrow valley floor. At elevations of up to 1,200 feet, you will find a new frontier for world-class Chardonnay and Merlot. Discover CheckMate Artisanal Winery, a modern feat of nature and architecture designed by Tom Kundig, set amidst rugged, wild terrain and 50 year old vines.
A Location Like No Other
Unexpected achievements in winemaking, as in chess, involve new moves drawn from almost infinite possibilities. At CheckMate Artisanal Winery, the ever-changing variables make winemaking like playing chess in multiple dimensions. We’re not only cultivating blocks that include 50-year-old vines, we’re doing it in a radically different location, the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.
Winemaking here is never confined to neat square spaces or expected moves. It’s never black and white. We constantly adapt in a place considered by many to be out of bounds, growing at elevations up to 365 meters (1,200 feet) and alongside lakes that plummet almost 244 meters (800 feet) deep. Only in a defiant place so bold and beautiful can you do what’s never been done before.
Winemaking here is never confined to neat square spaces or expected moves. It’s never black and white. We constantly adapt in a place considered by many to be out of bounds, growing at elevations up to 365 meters (1,200 feet) and alongside lakes that plummet almost 244 meters (800 feet) deep. Only in a defiant place so bold and beautiful can you do what’s never been done before.
CheckMate Artisanal Winery is a modern feat of nature. Along with visionary winemakers and masterful collaborators like award-winning architect Tom Kundig, we’ve created a place no one expected.
Game Changer
Less than half of one percent of all wines score a perfect 100. CheckMate’s 2020 Little Pawn Chardonnay has scored 100 six times in seven years. It’s unprecedented. And that’s just one of our seven standout, highly limited chardonnays in the CheckMate portfolio.
Tiny Vineyards, Outsized Impact
The renown Burgundy region of France, which produces award-winning terroir-forward wines, is considered by most to be tiny. It stretches across about 500 square kilometers (190 square miles). Our award-winning wines at CheckMate are sourced from far less: just a few acres with incredible diversity—seven small-block vineyards, just 100 kilometres north of the U.S. border, which is just 11 rows.
We cultivate wine from some of the continent’s oldest Chardonnay vines somewhere so improbable that most people write it off. But only in a place so rugged and unexpected, set against the backdrop of changing climate, could we pull this off.
With so many natural elements intersecting and changing here, others would be tempted to intervene constantly. With our scientific training and refined craft, we let nature take its course and watch closely for the perfect moment to harvest. Then we do everything by hand, touching almost every grape picked and overseeing every aspect of aging and blending, using technology only when it helps us to best represent each bottle’s unconventional origins—this one-of-a-kind place and time.
