Hester Creek releases reds from the Epic 22 vintage

Photo: Hester Creek winemaker Mark Hopley (courtesy of Hester Creek)

Hester Creek has nicknamed the Okanagan’s 2022 vintage as Epic 22, underlining the splendid quality of one of the best growing seasons ever in the valley. Most wineries and most commentators agree with that ranking.

2022 “will go down in history as one of the most challenging yet productive years on record,” writes Cassidy Keens, the winery’s public relations and events coordinator. “The extended growing season that year led to a longer harvest, with each grape carefully handpicked. Thanks to the addition of new vineyards, our overall yield was nearly 30% larger than we had originally anticipated. This larger fruit yield remained on the vine longer than usual. Just as we approached the end of [harvest], an unexpected three feet of snow fell on November 2. As a result of this heavy snowfall, the grape skins began to raisin slightly and concentrate, enhancing the flavour intensity, structure and colour of the wines. These wines reflect the personality and uniqueness of this particularly outstanding vintage.”

She continues by quoting Mark Hopley, Hester Creek’s winemaker, on his assessment of the winery’s flagship red wine, called Garland in tribute to winery owner Curt Garland. “This vintage of Garland is the finest we have ever crafted,” Mark says. “It has amazing concentration of fruit while remaining elegant.”

The downside of the late harvest of 2022 is that many vines were not yet fully dormant when a sharp frost swept over the valley. The resulting damage to fruiting buds and vines significantly reduced the 2023 harvest. Then, to make matters worse, a really hard freeze in January 2024 eliminated about 95% of that year’s crop. Mark Sheridan, Hester Creek’s president, was among the first of the Okanagan vintners to travel to the Columbia Valley in Washington State in March, 2024, nailing down grapes for Hester Creek’s 2024 vintage. “We met with from seven sub-AVAs (American Viticultural Areas), learned their stories, analyzed their growing practices and built a partnership to import the best grapes possible,” the winery writes. Hester Creek often had first choice. “Each block was chosen with absolute discretion for the varietal, location, growing practices and quality of the fruit.”

The winery has been releasing wines from what it calls its Columbia Collection. There are seven or eight wines, two of which are reviewed here. I reviewed four of them earlier this year; I repeat those scores to indicate the consistent quality of the wines. Hester Creek has not yet reported on how its Okanagan vineyards are doing this year, but I would infer from what other wineries are saying that the vines have rebounded with generous crops. Hester Creek has every intention of returning to making VQA wines when the B.C. vineyards support that. Here are notes on recent releases, including some Epic 22 wines.

Hester Creek Riesling 2024 ($24.99). The grapes for this wine are from the Ancient Lakes AVA. Harvested by hand, the fruit was delivered by temperature-controlled trucks to Hester Creek’s crush pad the same day. The wine was fermented cool for 20 days and aged in stainless steel for five months before being bottled. It is a juicy wine, with aromas and flavours of peach, grapefruit and green apple. 90.

Hester Creek Rosé Noir 2024 ($27.99). The fruit, clone 777 Pinot Noir, was sourced in the Ancient Lakes AVA. The grapes came to Hester Creek in refrigerated trucks and, on being crushed, had three hours of skin contact to extract the delicate hue that presents in the glass. The wine was fermented cool for 20 days and aged four months in stainless steel before bottling. The wine begins with aromas of wild strawberries, leading to delicate flavours of strawberry and raspberry. 90.

Hester Creek Pinot Gris 2024 ($19.99). 90.

Hester Creek Sauvignon Blanc 2024 ($19.99). 90.

Hester Creek Viognier 2024 ($23.99). 91.

Hester Creek Rosé Cabernet Franc 2024 ($22.99). 88.

Hester Creek Old Vine Cabernet Franc 2022 ($29.99). This wine was aged 18 months in barrels (75% French, 25% American). The wine begins with aromas of blackberry and raspberry which are echoed on the palate, along with notes of chocolate. The intense flavours lead to a persistent finish. 93.

Hester Creek Syrah 2022 ($29.99). The grapes in this wine were co-fermented with Viognier. The wine was aged 14 months in oak (60% American, 40% French). The wine begins with aromas of blackberry, dark cherry and black pepper. The wine is rich in texture, with flavours of plum and cherry mingled with deli meats. 91.

Hester Creek The Judge 2022 ($49.99). This is a blend of 47% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc, 17% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% each of Petit Verdot and Malbec. The wine was aged 14 months in French oak. The wine begins with aromas of dark cherry and cocoa, leading to flavours of dark cherry and black currant with hints of tobacco on the lingering finish. 92.

Hester Creek Garland 2022 ($64.99). The blend is 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 9% Petit Verdot and 4% Malbec. The wine was aged 24 months in French oak. A hint of oak comes through on the bold palate as cedar, mingled with cloves and dark fruit. The palate delivers rich flavours of plum, dark cherry and cassis. The long, ripe tannins mark this as a wine with good aging potential. 95.

Pentâge Winery reaches into a deep inventory

Photo: Paul Gardner and Julie Rennie

At Penticton’s Pentâge Winery, Paul Gardner and Julie Rennie grow 19 varietals in the 15 acres of their two vineyards on a bench overlooking Skaha Lake. It enables them to offer quite interesting blends alongside distinctive single varietal wines.

Over the years, the winery, which opened in 2003, has built up an inventory of well-cellared wines, as the vintages reviewed here suggest. Not many producers still are able to offer wines from the 2018 vintage unless it is a library release. The deep inventory appears to be pulling the winery through the production losses in the 2024 vintage due to the January 2024 freeze. Fortunately, the Pentâge vineyards are likely to produce a reasonable harvest this fall.

“Out in the vineyard, things are developing beautifully,” Julie wrote in a recent online post. “The vineyard is looking healthy this season, with a heavy crop load developing across most blocks. To ensure optimal ripening and preserve quality, our vineyard crew is currently fruit thinning — a vital step that balances yield to promote phenolic development and flavor concentration in the fruit. This week, we’ve started to see veraison in the Gewürztraminer and Gamay — an exciting milestone where the grapes begin to ripen, bringing us one step closer to harvest. It’s shaping up to be a promising vintage, and we look forward to seeing how it unfolds as the season progresses.” So are this winery’s many followers. Here are my notes on four recent releases.

Pentâge Roussanne Marsanne Viognier 2019 ($30.43). This is 50% Roussanne, 30% Marsanne and 20% Viognier. The wine was aged 11 months in French oak puncheons and barriques that were three or four years old. It is a terrific wine, beginning with honeyed aromas of guava and citrus. The rich palate delivers flavours of ripe peach and apricot, with a persistent finish. 92.

Pentâge Cabernet Franc 2022 ($30.43). Grown in a top vintage, this wine was aged 15 months in French oak (25% new). Dark in hue and full-bodied, the wine begins with aromas of blackberry, dark cherry and spice. On the palate, flavours of plum and dark cherry are mingled with notes of chocolate and oak. 92.

Pentâge Pinot Noir 2020 ($30.43). This wine was matured 18 months in French oak barrels and puncheons (30% new). This is a masculine style of Pinot Noir, dark in colour, firm in structure. There are aromas and flavours of dark cherry mingled with spice and oak. 88.

Pentâge GSM 2018 ($34.78). The blend is 47% Grenache, 43% Mourvedre and 10% Syrah. Each varietal was aged in oak barrels (20% new) for 15 months. The wine won a gold medal last year in a national competition, deservedly so. Aromas of dark fruits and pepper just bound out of the glass. On the palate, flavours of cherry and raspberry mingle with subtle notes of pepper and oak. 94.

Church and State sparkling wines medal at Decanter

Photo: Church & State winemaker Arnaud Thierry

Church & State Wines recently trumpeted its success at the Decanter World Wine Awards for its sparkling wines: two silver medals and one bronze. That is a rigorous international competition. It is a credit to any winemaker to come away with medals, an notably to Arnaud Thierry, the winemaker at Church & State.

Arnaud, who joined the Okanagan winery in 2018, was trained in Champagne. It is logical, then, that the winery’s sparkling wines are well made. The 10-acre vineyard near Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island grows Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, grapes that are dedicated to sparkling wine.

Church & State, which also has 85 acres of vineyard and an elegant tasting room on Black Sage Road in the Okanagan, originated on Vancouver Island in 2002 as Victoria Estate Winery. The struggling winery was acquired two years later by tax lawyer Kim Pullen. At the recommendation of his consulting winemaker at the time, Californian Bill Dyer, he moved production to the south Okanagan a few years later rather than transporting grapes to Vancouver Island. The Brentwood Bay vineyard was reserved for varietals best suited to the cool climate and for sparkling wines.

Pullen sold the winery in 2017 to Sunocean Wineries and Estate, a Vancouver company owned by a low-profile Chinese businessman. The new owners were able to add the experienced Arnaud to their team shortly after he had moved from France to the Okanagan with his wife, Caroline Schaller, then the winemaker at Osoyoos Larose. There is a brief biographical note about Arnaud on the winery’s website: “Our winemaker, Arnaud Thierry joined the team in late 2017. He was all but born into winemaking having spent much of his youth amidst the vines of Bordeaux. His interest in biology and biochemistry, as well as a desire to understand the art of viticulture, led him to study enology in Champagne for several years. This, coupled with a love of nature, cuisine, and diverse flavors brought to life by wine brought him deeper into the world of winemaking.”

“The winemaking is quite simple and traditional,” Arnaud told me in 2021. “I am very attracted by tradition, and the respect of the fruit. Winemaking is very classic: a good expression of the fruit and freshness in the whites; and volume, fruit and spice in the reds. I want to have the varietal specificity of the grapes each time.” I have reviewed his table wines on several occasions and have always been impressed. Recently, the winery sent me the three sparking wines in its current portfolio.

Decanter scores were 89 points for Blanc de Gris, 88 points for Gris de Noir and 88 points for Blanc de Blanc, the bronze medal wine. Here are my notes. I was more impressed with the Blanc de Blanc and the Blanc de Gris than the Decanter judges, but then I was not judging a table full of sparkling wines.

Church & State Blanc de Blanc 2018 ($33.99). Made with Chardonnay from one of the winery’s Black Sage Bench vineyards, this traditional method sparkling wine spent 30 months on the lees in the Brentwood Bay cellar. The wine presents in the glass with fine, active bubbles and a light golden hue. It has aromas of brioche mingled with citrus, leading to flavours of apples and lemon. 92.

Church & State Blanc de Gris 2019 ($32.99 for 770 cases). A traditional method sparkling wine made with Pinot Gris, this aged in bottle at least 12 months. Pale yellow in hue and showing fine bubbles, the wine has aromas that begin with a hint of brioche and goes on to notes of pear. On the palate, there are flavours of stone fruits. 90.

Church & State Gris de Noir 2021 ($33.99 for 241 cases). This wine was made with Brentwood Bay Pinot Noir. It presents with a light blush and aromas of raspberry. The wine, with active bubbles, shows a playfully fruity flavour profile of red fruit. 88.

CheckMate's world-class 2022 Chardonnays

Photo: Winemaker Philip McGahan

The highest scoring Chardonnays in the Okanagan have been produced consistently by CheckMate Artisanal Winery. They are also the most expensive, the logical consequence of setting such a high bar for quality. The winery was established after Mission Hill owner Anthony von Mandl in 2012 bought adjacent properties on the Golden Mile – the closed Combret winery and the vineyard that grew the Chardonnay for Mission Hills’s award-winning 1994 Chardonnay. That was the wine that Mission Hill promoted as “best in the world” after it won a medal in a major London competition. The vineyard was growing the so-called Dekleva clone Chardonnay (named for the original vineyardist). Cuttings of that clone were planted in several other South Okanagan vineyards as they were established by Von Mandl and his team, as well as by other growers.

With this and other excellent clones of Chardonnay in vineyards in the South Okanagan, Anthony set about creating CheckMate Winery. The seven CheckMate Chardonnay wines could be promoted as best in the world without exaggeration. I have awarded 100 points to one of them four times. CheckMate is just releasing four of its Chardonnays from the outstanding 2022 vintage. As it happens, this was the final vintage touched by winemaker Philip McGahan, the original CheckMate vintner. An Australian lawyer turned winemaker, he was recruited in 2013 from a leading Sonoma winery.

He had to return to Australia for personal reasons in 2020 but he remained very much involved with CheckMate for several more vintages. “I was involved with CheckMate through until early-to-mid 2023,” Philip wrote in a recent email. “I did assist with the picking calls, fermentation management and maturation of the wines, working with Kaylee Barrs, CheckMate assistant winemaker, who was on site at CheckMate and did an excellent job making the wines.”

In mid-2023, Philip handed the chief winemaking position to Penticton-born Spencer Kelly who had been recruited from a prestigious Napa Valley winery. So far, trhe 2023 wines he made have not been released. Because the 2024 vintage was wiped out by the January 2024 freeze, CheckMate could not make a 2024 vintage. Spencer has returned to Napa.

Philip now makes wines for an Australian producer near Adelaide. CheckMate also produces excellent Merlots. However, the current release involves the 2022 Chardonnays, wines that mark the pinnacle of Philip’s decade in the Okanagan. Here are my notes.

CheckMate Artisanal Winery Capture Chardonnay 2022 ($100 for 21 barrels). The fruit for this wine, Dijon Clone 76 and 8o9, was grown in the Border Vista Vineyard, which is right against the U.S. border at Osoyoos. The wine was fermented with natural yeast and was aged 14 months in French oak barrels (47% new). The wine begins with intense aromas of orange peel and stone fruits. The palate also displays flavours of nectarine and peach. The finish is very long. 97.

CheckMate Artisanal Winery Fool's Mate Chardonnay 2022 ($95 for 47 barrels, three foudre). Fruit was sourced from four different vineyards in the South Okanagan, deliberately imbuing the wine with complex characters. It was aged two-thirds in French oak barriques (50% new) and one-third in oak foudres. There is the slightest hint of oak in the aroma mingled with citrus. There are flavours of lemon and stone fruits. The finish is long, showing what the winery calls “crunchy” fruit on an age-worthy texture. 95.

CheckMate Artisanal Winery Little Pawn Chardonnay 2022 ($110 for 30 barrels, one concrete egg). The fruit is from the legendary Jagged Rock Vineyard on the Black Sage bench. There are two clones here: Dekleva and Dijon 76. The wine was aged 14 months 90% in French oak (56% new) and 10% in a concrete egg. One of Checkmate’s most elegant Chardonnays, the wine begins with aromas of tangerine and spice leading to flavours where the tangerine mingles on a rich palate with notes of nectarine. 96.

CheckMate Artisanal Winery Queen Taken Chardonnay 2022 ($125). The fruit is from 47-year-old vines on the adjoining Dekleva and Combret vineyards on the Golden Mile Bench. The wine was aged 14 months in 85% French oak barrels (55% new), 9% concrete and 6% ceramic. The wine begins with aromas of guava and Asian pear, leading to flavours of stone fruits and a finish that refuses to quit. 96.

Fort Berens supplemented Lillooet grapes with Washington fruit in 2024

Photo: Fort Berens CEO Heleen Pannekoek

The severe cold snap in January 2024 that devastated the Okanagan vineyards did not spare Lillooet where Fort Berens Estate Winery is based. In the 2024 vintage, the two estate vineyards produced 45 tons of fruit, about 30% of a normal harvest. To supplement the harvest, Fort Berens bought 68 tons of grapes from Sagemoor Vineyards in Washington State. Seth Jex, the assistant winemaker at Fort Berens, supervised the pick, the crush and the fermentation in Washington. The wines were then transported to Lillooet and finished by Alex Nel, who had stayed to supervise the vintage from the Lillooet vineyards.

Heleen Pannekoek, Fort Berens’s co-founder and chief executive, writes: “This approach allowed us to supplement our estate production, navigate climate-related challenges, keep our team employed, maintain consistent offerings for our customers, and keep our business alive.” She adds: “We’re happy to report that our estate vineyard is in great shape this year. It’s still very early in the season, but we are projecting about two-thirds of a normal crop, as the vines are being retrained.” Here are notes on the wines.

Fort Berens Here & There Pinot Gris 2024 ($24.49 for 1,000 cases). The fruit is from Washington’s Wahluke Slope AVA. The crushed fruit had four hours of skin contact before a long, cool fermentation and four months aging on the lees. The wine begins with aromas of nectarine and pear leading to refreshing flavours of nectarine, peach and citrus. 90.

Fort Berens Here & There Chardonnay 2024 ($24.99 for 1,250 cases). This wine was made with Washington fruit. Thirty percent was aged four months in French oak barrels while 70% was aged on the lees in tank. The two lots were then blended. This is a delicious wine with a light hint of oak supporting aromas and flavours of peach and nectarine. 91.

Fort Berens Here & There Riesling 2024 ($22.99 for 600 cases). This wine was made with Washington fruit. The crushed grapes were given 12 hours of skin contact and a long, cool ferment that was stopped by lowering the temperature. A touch of residual sweetness is balanced with bright acidity. The wine begins with aromas of lemon and grapefruit. On the palate, it is a bowl of tropical fruit flavours. The finish is crisp and fresh. 90.

Fort Berens Here & There Rosé 2024 ($23.49 for 1,300 cases). The fruit is from old Shiraz vines (planted 1997) in Washington’s Wahluke Slope AVA. The grapes were allowed six hours of skin contact, resulting in an appealing rose petal hue to the wine in the glass. It has aromas and flavours of cherry, strawberry, watermelon and pomegranate. 90.

Fort Berens Small Lot Merlot 2022 ($32.99 for 282 cases). This wine was made with estate fruit. The grapes were given a two-day cold soak with regular pump-overs during fermentation and three days of post-ferment maceration on the skins. The wine was aged 15 months in French oak barrels (12% new). It begins with aromas of plum, dark cherry and spice. These are echoed on the palate and on the long finish. 91.

Fort Berens Meritage Reserve 2021 ($43.99 for 294 cases). This wine is made with fruit from the winery’s estate vineyards. The blend is 42% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 33% Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes were given a two-day cold soak with regular pump-overs during fermentation and an eight-day maceration on the skins. The wine was aged 15 months in French oak barrels (50% new). A richly textured wine, it has aromas and flavours of cherry, plum and spice. There is a hint of dark chocolate on the long finish. 92.

Fort Berens Meritage 2022 ($29.99 for 1,855 cases). This wine is 70% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Cabernet Franc. This wine is made with 40% estate-grown fruit and 60% Osoyoos fruit. Each varietal was vinified and barrel-aged separately for 15 months before the winemaker made the final blend. This is an elegant wine with aromas and flavours of dark fruit and cassis, with long, ripe tannins enhancing the long finish. 92.

Fort Berens Cabernet Franc 2022 ($32.99 for 971 cases). The substantial production of this wine was the result of the winery’s new Red Rock Vineyard coming into production. The grapes were given a two-day cold soak with regular pump-overs during fermentation and a nine-day maceration on the skins for colour and fine tannin extraction. The wine was aged 15 months in French oak barrels (10% new). The wine has aromas and flavours of blackberries and dark cherry with a note of spice on the finish. 91.

Fort Berens Red Gold Reserve 2021 ($49.99 for 149 cases). Winemaker Alex Nel, who joined Fort Berens the previous year, put his stamp on the cellar with this big and bold red from selected estate-grown fruit. The blend is 51% Cabernet Franc, 16% Merlot and 33% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was aged 15 months in new French oak barrels. The wine begins with aromas of dark cherry, cassis and cigar box. The flavours of dark fruit and spicy oak seduce the palate. 95.