The Vision
CheckMate Artisanal Winery founder Anthony von Mandl started with little more than a vision and not a dime to his name. But bootstrapping his own wine merchant business led him around the world, to some of the most established wine producers. With his insatiable curiosity, sharp attention to detail, and no time or money to waste, he quickly learned to recognize the common traits shared by the world’s best growing regions, looking for signs like succulent stone fruit or crisp apples or flourishing cherries that wherever they grew, often hinted at the potential for growing temperamental grapes like chardonnay.
A Daring Move
Anthony brought those observations back home to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, where he spotted many of the telltale signs here. From the lay of the land and the protective rain shadow cast by the mountains that keeps grapes free of fungus, to the cool nights and warm days that yield some of the world’s most delectable stone fruit. To him, it all revealed the potential to create scarce amounts of exceptional wines that would set new standards for excellence.
Anthony set out to realize his vision with a deep reverence for the land, its history and future, and with the focus and determination to think five moves ahead—then rapidly adapted when nature inevitably changed the rules. Only the boldest, most considered series of strategic decisions—long-term investments in varietals, clones, rootstock, and the environment as a whole—could result in an artisanal winery that lives up to its daring name: CheckMate.
Only Here
The Okanagan Valley is a place born from the crash of three tectonic plates, so forceful that it set off volcanic eruptions, leading to not one but two glacial ages. No other wine region experienced the power, pressure, heat, ice, and constant grind that left this Valley ribboned with the remnants of geological transformations that unfolded over millions of years. Its sloping hills and plunging lakes are carved out from the glaciers that more than 10,000 years ago, smashed the bonds of earthen elements, scattered them through the soil, and created an acidic alchemy found nowhere else. The terroir here encompasses the best of Burgundy and Bordeaux, producing Chardonnay and Merlot in a fraction of the space of places known best for those grapes. Okanagan Valley winegrowing region stretches about 165 kilometres (100 miles) from north to south. To get the same diversity of terroir in Europe, you’d have to drive through distinct wine regions in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Austria—about 2,700 kilometres (1,700 miles).
The change that defines the history of CheckMate’s vineyards isn’t relegated to the valley’s past, however. It’s increasingly part of its future. Longer days in a growing season that’s already shorter than most are becoming even more extreme with shifting climate in every passing season—winemaking here is equally unforgiving and promising.
Block by Block Approach
When you step into this place, the spiny cactus and red gravel crunching under your feet can fool you into thinking you’re in the desert. You might catch a wild horse kicking up dust in a scene straight out of Montana. The sagebrush and occasional threat of black bears might make you think you’re in Appalachia. The calm lake and green sloping hillsides in the distance look like the Loire Valley or Burgundy in France. There’s no one way to grow grapes here. So instead, through years of study and experimentation—and rapidly learning from failure—we have mapped an unexpected patchwork of tiny vineyard blocks, some with as few as 11 rows, so we can learn and adapt with agility as we go—and make harmony from extreme diversity.
Centuries of Craft Brought Forward
We choose equipment and approaches that helps us get the most from what nature already provides, even when it means diverging from industry standards. Sometimes gravity is the best tool. At other times, technology augments our hands-on approach. We achieve our own high aspirations by understanding and anticipating natural cycles, then pair old-world techniques with new-world innovations that extract the fullest potential from our minimal interventions in natural processes.
