CheckMate releases its first Merlots

Photo: CheckMate winemaker Philip McGahan

CheckMate Artisanal Winery, which turned heads a year ago with five splendid 2013 Chardonnay wines from the South Okanagan, is setting out to do the same with four impressive Merlot wines, just being released.

CheckMate is a premium winery owned by Anthony von Mandl, the proprietor of Mission Hill Family Estate Winery, CedarCreek Estate Winery and Martin’s Lane Winery, all in the Okanagan.

At these wineries, the portfolios all include wines that set out to make a statement on the world stage about the quality of Okanagan wines. CheckMate underlined that a year ago by releasing the Chardonnays in New York City.

The CheckMate winery is midway between Oliver and Osoyoos, in the former location of the Antelope Ridge Winery. Von Mandl purchased the winery and a portion of its vineyard in 2012. More crucially, he also purchased a neighbouring vineyard. Here, the mature vines included a clone from which Mission Hill in 1992 made the legendary award-winning Chardonnay that put the winery on the map.

In its publicity, Mission Hill has always referred to that wine as the “world’s best Chardonnay.” More precisely, it should have been called the best Chardonnay in that particular competition. But to give Mission Hill credit, it was a good wine that deserved a major award – perhaps the most important international award ever won by a Canadian winery to that time.

These neighbouring Golden Mile vineyards seem to be good terroir for Chardonnay. Domaine Combret, as Antelope Ridge was called initially, won at least three awards for its wine at the Chardonnay du Monde competition in France.

Control of these vineyards with their 40-year-plus vines triggered the launch of CheckMate and the making of wines that eclipse anything made here before. The Antelope Ridge winery was refreshed with state-of-the-art equipment and Australian Philip McGahan was recruited to make the wines.

Born in 1969, Philip was raised on a wheat farm in Queensland. His first career was law.

“I did the old-fashioned articles, where you are an indentured servant,” he says. “I did my degree at night at the Queensland Institute of Technology, which is a very respected school, and worked full time. I was 18 when I started and I was admitted as a solicitor when I was 23. It’s quite a grind.”

A few years later, he joined a legal publishing company. “I worked my way up there, at one of the biggest publishing companies in Australia.” But city living did not appeal to him, so he enrolled in the winemaking program at Charles Sturt University. 

He was able to take the course part-time while working, starting with a custom crush winery in the Hunter Valley.  “I worked there four or five years while I finished my degree. It was a good place to learn because we had about 40 clients. We dealt with fruit from the highest quality to the worst.”

During that time, he worked the 2005 harvest at the prestigious Williams Selyem Winery in Sonoma. “Once I graduated, I came back [to California] as an assistant winemaker,” Phil says. He was soon promoted, become one of the winery’s three winemakers. Because he was the junior of the three, his career path was limited. He was ready to move to the Okanagan in 2012 when von Mandl recruited him, giving him the responsibility to redevelop the winery and craft world-class wines.

“I was at a point when I could have stayed in America, got my green card and hope to advance; or I could take chance,” Phil says. “For me, this has been an amazing experience.”

He was attracted by the opportunity to work with fruit from mature vines and he was struck by the quality of the Chardonnay. “I remember tasting the juice when it first came in,” he says. “You could tell the fruit here was very sound; and it has a bigger phenolic grip than in California, where the season is so long. Especially in Sonoma County, where you had a lot of disease pressure from the marine layer coming in all the time.”

Phil continues: “The fruit quality was good and the ferments were all clean. The ferments here, they go dry. I haven’t had a stuck ferment in the time I have been here. That really struck me. I attribute that to the fact that there are not many toxins in the fruit. It is such a short season here. You get five or five and a half months with Chardonnay and the skins are pristine when they come in. But if you get a longer season, like seven months in California, you have a lot of botrytis and black rot on the fruit when it comes in. I think that builds up toxins. Down in California, we get stuck ferments. Up here, we haven’t. When I do natural ferments, they just go through.”

And he is making his wines with minimal intervention. “There is definitely a style in the way we make the wines,” he says. “It is all natural ferments; extended maceration. In 2013, it was all around 50, 55 days on the skins [for the Merlot]. By the time you go to barrel, you are pretty much dry. We are virtually going to barrel straight from tank.”

Because Von Mandl owns vineyards throughout the Okanagan, Phil has access to superb blocks from a number of properties in the South Okanagan. His rows may be farmed differently from neighbouring rows in the same vineyard, and they are likely to be picked at different dates, all in a quest to achieve a singular style for the CheckMate wines.

Both the Chardonnays and the Merlots are named for chess pieces or strategies. Von Mandl explained this at last year’s New York launch.

“If you look at a chessboard and you think each of the individual squares being a block in a vineyard, it allows us to really dial in on specific blocks and make some very limited edition wines,” he said. “It will allow us to do interesting wines with interesting names. You could have all sorts of things to do with chess and it all dials back to the specific blocks the grapes are coming from, and the techniques we are using. There is a lot of expertise going in there.”

Here are notes on the Merlots.  All aged 21 months in new French oak and all are priced at $85 a bottle. There are 25 cases in a barrel of wine.

CheckMate Opening Gambit Merlot 2013 (13 barrels produced). The fruit is from vineyards on the Osoyoos East Bench. The wine’s aromas of cassis and black cherry are echoed on the palate along with flavours of fig, espresso and dark chocolate. The texture is concentrated but the tannins are long and polished. 95.

CheckMate Black Rook Merlot 2013 (nine barrels produced). The fruit is from the Black Sage Bench. This wine is bold, even brooding, with aromas of blackberry and anise. The palate delivers flavours of blueberry, black cherry, spice and vanilla, with a lingering finish. 96.

CheckMate Silent Bishop Merlot 2013 (12 barrels produced). The grapes for this wine are all from benches on the western side of South Okanagan. The wine begins with aromas of red berries and spice leading to bright flavours of cherry and blueberry. The sweet berry flavours linger on the finish, with a brightness in significant contrast to the darkness of the Black Rook. 95.

CheckMate End Game Merlot 2013 (12 barrels produced). The grapes for this are from Osoyoos East Bench and Black Sage Bench as the winemaker wants to display the terroir of the hotter east side of the valley. The wine is rich and full-bodied with spicy aromas of plum. There is pure, sweet fruit on the mid-palate with savoury notes on the finish. 95.

SpierHead increases commitment to Pinot Noir

Photo: SpierHead Winery

East Kelowna is emerging as premier Pinot Noir terroir in the Okanagan, with SpierHead Winery as a leading exponent of the variety.

In 2015, I asked Bill Knutson, one of the owners, about SpierHead’s commitment to Pinot Noir. The release of two new reds from that vintage sent me back to a review of his reply. It is worth reproducing in full:

Approximately 9 of our 12 planted acres consist of pinot noir.  I’ll tell you a little bit about our clones and our plans for future planting.  My plan is to establish a vineyard with a broad diversity of clones to enable some experimentation with combinations and possibly single clone wines.  In our original 4 acres of pinot noir we have Dijon clones 115, 777 and 828.  We don’t have much of the 828 and as we think it is our most successful performer, we planted another 4,000 x 828 in 2014.  We also added a 4^th Dijon clone in 2014.  We put in about 3,000 x clone 667. 

This year we will be doing some more planting.  I have some Mt Eden clone coming from California.  It is one of a handful of clones which are referred to as “California Heritage” clones.  These heritage clones are among the original ones identified in California.  Another well known one is Swan.

Having no regard for money or sensibility, we have additional planting plans in 2016.  I would have done it this year except that I couldn’t get the clones that I wanted.  So, in 2016 we’ll be planting an additional couple of acres.  I have a few thousand each of Pommard and Dijon #943.  Pommard is one of the clones that is widely used in Oregon.  It is usually regarded as bringing a spicy element to the wine.  943 is a relatively new Dijon clone which is proving very hard to get ahold of.  It is receiving rave reviews, especially in New Zealand. 

While I have not confirmed what was actually planted this year, Bill’s comments create a lot of anticipation about future SpierHead releases when the vineyard is in full production.

Meanwhile, here are notes on current releases.

SpierHead Pinot Gris 2015 ($19). This wine begins with appealing aromas of peaches and apples, which are echoed in the flavours. Crisp and dry, the wine is refreshing, with a clean focus on the fruit. 91.

SpierHead Pinot Noir 2015 ($25 for 956 cases). This wine is a blend of clones 115, 667, 777 and 828. The wine was aged 10 months French oak barrels and there is still a hint of oak on the palate because it is still integrating with the sensuous fruit. The wine begins with the perfume of cherries and strawberries; that fruit is echoed on the palate. With decanting, the wine shows a velvet texture. To get the best of this wine’s excellent value, give it another year of bottle age. 90-92.

SpierHead Pinot Noir Cuvée 2015 ($35 for 327 cases.). The winery also produced 48 magnums and 12 double magnums of its flagship Pinot Noir. Aged 10 months in French oak, this is a blend of five clones: 30% Pommard clone, 21% each of 667 and 777, and 14% each of 115 and 868. This is an intensely flavoured, masculine Pinot Noir. It begins with aromas of black cherry and a hint of mocha, which is echoed in the spicy, mouth-filling flavours. There is a velvet polish to the generous texture. This wine also will age very well. 93.

Blue Mountain hosts 2016 open house

Photo: Blue Mountain bubbles for winter

For the first 20 of its 25 years, Blue Mountain Vineyard & Cellars was a winery open by appointment only.

The subsequent sea change in the winery’s approach to the public is remarkable. A case in point is the winery’s open house during the weekend of November 19 and 20. Between 10 am and 4 pm, the winery is open for tastings, with a special sparkling wine tour in the afternoon.

As well, there will be food available along with wines by the glass and, in the afternoon, live music. And there will be a fire pit to keep the guests warm.

It sounds like a lot of fun. Tip: you do need to make a reservation by November 16^th, but that is only so the winery knows how much food to have on hand.

If that is not enough to inspire a drive to the Okanagan in winter, the winery’s latest sparkling wine should seal the deal.

Blue Mountain has produced an excellent sparkling wine every year since the winery was founded in 1991. For many of those years, the production volume was too limited (or sold too quickly) to allow the winery to hold back a portion each vintage for extended aging on the lees.

In recent years, the winery has been able to do that. The result is a series of R. D. (for recently disgorged) sparkling wines that stand side by side with Champagne.

Blue Mountain Gold Label Brut, the winery’s bread and butter sparkling wine, spends two years on the lees before being disgorged, bottled and released. Wines made in this style are typically crisp and fresh. At $24 a bottle, this wine represents outstanding value for its quality.

The R.D wines necessarily are more expensive, reflecting the additional years these wines are aged. But compared with the price of Champagne, they are bargains.

Here are notes on Blue Mountain’s recently released sparkling wines.

Blue Mountain Gold Label Brut ($24). This is 60% Pinot Noir, 36% Chardonnay and 4% Pinot Gris. Each variety is fermented separately and then blended before secondary fermentation in bottle. It spends 24 months in that bottle before being disgorged. The wine, which is finished dry, presents fresh flavours of apple and citrus with a slight hint of toast. The active bubbles create a creamy palate but the finish is crisp. 91.

Blue Mountain Brut Rosé 2012 R.D. ($33). This is 65% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay. The wine was disgorged after aging 36 months on the lees in bottle. The wine has 10 grams per litre of dosage – not enough to move it away from the dry or brut style, but enough to flesh out the fruit. The wine has a delicate strawberry aroma mingled with bready notes. On the palate, the pristine flavours suggest delicate cherry with a hint of citrus. The pink hue of the wine and the active mousse make this a very celebratory wine. 92.

Blue Mountain Blanc de Blanc 2009 R.D. ($40). This is 100% Chardonnay that spent 5 ½ years on the lees in the bottle in which secondary fermentation occurred. Consequently, the bready or yeasty aromas are more pronounced in the aroma. There is a hint of tangy lemon on the palate. The active mousse creates a creamy texture but the finish is crisply dry. 92.

Blue Mountain Reserve Brut 2008 R.D. ($40). This is 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay. After secondary fermentation, the wine remained on the lees in the bottle for 6 ½ years before being disgorged. The aromas and flavours are remarkably fresh, with toasty notes and hints of citrus and with a lively mousse. This is a wine of considerable elegance. 93.

Class of 2016: Mirabel Vineyards

Photo: Mirabel Vineyards' Doug Reimer

Doug and Dawn Reimer moved in 2005 from West Vancouver to a property in Kelowna to build their dream home.

Now, they also operate their dream winery, Mirabel Vineyards, which is about to release a $70 Pinot Noir. It will be the most expensive Okanagan Pinot Noir but the quality is  impressive.

The Reimers are Winnipeg natives. Doug, who was born in 1955, is a member of renowned trucking family. His father, Donald, started Reimer Express Lines in 1952 with one truck. It became one of Canada’s largest trucking firms before it was sold in 1997 to Roadway Express, an American company. When the non-compete provisions of the sale ended, the Reimer family launched Reimer World Corp. in 2003, a company that now employs 3,000 in Canada.

Doug and Dawn developed an interest in wine as consumers and collectors, with an eclectic cellar that ranges from Argentine Malbec to Château Pétrus. Dawn also has Italian heritage and comes from a family that made wine at home.

Mirabel Vineyards, however, emerged from their desire to do more than just build a home on their Kelowna property, which is near the Harvest Golf Club and commands a terrific view.

“We have always loved wine but that is not how I got interested in growing it,” Doug says. “When we bought the property, we had such a beautiful piece of property but we thought we could do more than grow apples and pears. They don’t pay very much and they don’t look that good. There are a lot of sprays that go with it. I did not want that around the house. So we decided to rip out the hill in front of us that was blocking our view. After we did that, we asked now what do we do?”

They engaged two masters of wine, Rhys Pender and James Cluer, to advise them. The decision, after soil samples were analyzed, was to plant six acres of Pinot Noir in 2006 on the steep slope. The western-facing vineyard rises from an elevation of 930 feet to 1,220 at the top. Three Dijon clones are grown: 115, 667 and 777.

Doug is a decisive businessman. Growing grapes tested his corporate patience. “The crazy thing about this wine business is that you plant a stick in the ground and you have to wait three years,” he says.  “I am in the transportation business where, when you do something, you do it right away. This waiting business was hard for me to take.”

By the second year, however, the vines produced enough berries to keep him engaged. In the third year, the vines yielded four tons of grapes. For the next number of years, the grapes were sold to two the Okanagan’s premier Pinot Noir producers, Meyer Family Vineyards and Foxtrot Vineyards. Both made vineyard-designated wines that have helped establish the name of Reimer Vineyards.

Selling grapes to Meyer and to Foxtrot enabled the Reimers to assess the potential of their vineyard. “We were waiting to see what this terroir would really produce,” Doug says. “If it produced something we were excited about, then we want to take ownership and put our name on it.”

“We grew with our vines,” Dawn says. “We planted them and watched them grow. I walk the dog every day, up and down the [84] rows. It has been such an experience and we have grown so passionate about it.”

The experience was not without setbacks. A freak hailstorm one day in August 2013 devastated the grapes in the Reimer Vineyard (as well as in several neighbouring vineyards). “It happened in 10 minutes,” Doug says. “We were getting ready for harvest. Everything had been done, all the expenses incurred, and then we lost it all.”

Even so, it did not deter their ambition to make wine. The strong 2015 vintage triggered the decision to launch the winery they call Mirabel Vineyards, from Latin for “wondrous beauty.” They have retained Matt Dumayne (left) to make about 230 cases of Pinot Noir for them at Okanagan Crush Pad Winery, where he also is chief winemaker.

Crush Pad makes its wines in concrete. The Reimers, however, determined that their Pinot Noir would be made in oak barrels from the François Frères cooperage in France. Those barrels are favoured by many Pinot Noir producers, including Foxtrot.

The Reimers clearly intend to raise the bar. “We are trying to establish what will be a superior Pinot Noir in all of Canada, and knock down some doors in Oregon as well,” Doug says. “I love Oregon Pinot Noir. I have done extensive travelling in the Pinot Noir areas in Oregon. Maybe that is where our love started.”

Doug has added an acre and a half of Chardonnay vines to his vineyard this year. Beginning in the current vintage, he purchased Chardonnay grapes to add that wine to the Mirabel portfolio while waiting for the estate grapes to begin production.

In the 2016 vintage, Mirabel is producing about 200 cases of Chardonnay, 100 cases of rosé and about 500 cases of Pinot Noir.

“That’s it,” Doug says. “Eight hundred cases is where we will max out with Pinot Noir. I want to be exclusive. I don’t want to go to 5,000 cases.”

The 2015 Pinot Noir is to be released in the next month or two to select restaurants and through the winery’s website (which is still under development). Longer term plans call for opening an appointment-only wine shop at the winery.

Here is a note on the wine.

Mirabel Vineyards Pinot Noir 2015 ($70 for 237 cases). This elegant wine was aged 11 months in barrels (30% new). Gravity was used to transfer it to barrel and then to the bottling line. The gentle handling is reflected in the silky texture of the wine, which has great purity of fruit. It begins with appealing floral and cherry aromas. On the palate, there are flavours of cherry and strawberry with subtle hints of oak and spice. The wine has good weight on the palate, with lingering finish. 95.

Kettle Valley's second generation also impresses

Photo: Kettle Valley partners Tim Watts (l) and Bob Ferguson

Kettle Valley Vineyards marks its 25^th anniversary with  more good wines and with some news suggesting a long-term future after the founders retire.

Let me hasten to add that neither Bob Ferguson nor Tim Watts, who founded this winery with their wives, are talking about retirement any time soon.

However, the most recent releases include a superb Viognier that was made by Andrew Watts. He is the son of co-proprietors Tim and Janet Watts. He has come back to the winery where he grew up after completing enology studies in New Zealand in 2010 and after doing harvests in New Zealand, South America and Nova Scotia.

“We were kind of hoping the kids would be involved in the business and would carry things on,” Tim told me this summer. “I thought we had worked it out of all of them. Andrew for some reason liked the concept and went off to study winemaking at university.”

This may be first time that the partners have really delegated authority. It is not that they are control freaks, however.

“We have always been reluctant to bring in people from the outside to be in charge,” Bob told me.  “We wanted to do it ourselves. That is the whole fun of being in this business. From our perspective, we want to be hands on.”

In addition to making the Viognier (and generally helping in the winery), Andrew has also been managing the Great Northern Vineyard near Keremeos which Kettle Valley bought almost a decade ago. It is a 14-acre property, including almost two acres not planted.

“We left the two acres because at one point we thought we might have a winery down there,” Bob explained. “If all the boys came home, that would be a good place to have a second winery.”

That option has now been taken off the table, with the unplanted area being used to do the winery’s composting.  

“We are trying not to look for more work,” Tim told me. “We are trying to make our lives a little simpler. Now we are actually starting to take little holidays during the growing season and we never used to do that before. We are starting to live life the way we should be doing it.”

Thank you for coming home, Andrew, is implied. Here are notes on the six current releases.

Kettle Valley McGraw Estate Merlot 2013 ($38 for 72 cases). The wine has been aged in French oak for 21 months. This is a big, bold and concentrated Merlot with ripe fruit flavours that toy with port, given the 15.4% alcohol. The wine begins with black cherry,  cassis and vanilla aromas that are echoed in the sweet fruit flavours. The tannins are long and silken. 91.

Kettle Valley Barber Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 ($38 for 96 cases). The wine has been aged in French oak for 21 months. This is a legendary Cabernet Sauvignon from a vineyard which Kettle Valley has farmed since 2000. It has classic aromas of black currant and cherry with a touch of vanilla from the time in oak. Still a bit firm, the wine needs to be decanted. It opens up with flavours of cherry, black currant, coffee and mocha. 92.

Kettle Valley Old Main Red Naramata Bench Reserve 2013 ($38 for 502 cases).  This is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot from Old Main Vineyard with 5% Petit Verdot and Malbec from King Drive Vineyard, both located in Naramata. The wine has been aged in French oak for 21 months. The wine begins with ar0mas of cassis, cherry and vanilla, leading to flavours of cherry, black currant spice and cedar. On being decanted, the wine reveals an appealing core of sweet fruit flavours, with a hint of chocolate and tobacco on the finish. 93.

Great Northern Vineyards Viognier 2015 ($21 for 400 cases).  Andrew fermented a portion of this wine in older French barrels and allowed it to go through malolactic ferment as well, accounting for the rich texture of the wine. The remainder of the juice was fermented in stainless steel, preserving the fresh fruit flavours. The wine is a mouth-filling bowl of fruit, with aromas and flavours of apricots and mango. A tour de force! 92.

Great Northern Vineyards Syrah 2013 ($24 for 478 cases). The grapes were farmed at just over one ton an acre to yield a very concentrated wine, which aged 21 months in French oak before bottling. The result is another robust and ripe red, with aromas recalling spice and fruitcake. The flavours include plum, fig and black cherry with a hint of pepper on the finish. 91.

Great Northern Vineyards Zinfandel 2014 ($24 for 760 cases). This wine aged 20 months in oak. It is another bold red, with brambly blackberry aromas and with lush red berry fruit flavours. The texture is generous and the finish is long. 91.

Maverick's introspective Bertus Albertyn

Photo: Bertus Albertyn

It is a bit surprising to discover that getting into a rut is one of winemaker Bertus Albertyn’s fears.

Bertus is one of the proprietors of Maverick Estate Winery, whose tasting room is on the highway, midway between Oliver and Osoyoos. He recently hosted me to a tasting of his wines which, in my view, are among the best in the Okanagan. I was struck that someone making such stellar wines can be so candidly self-critical – although that may explain the quality of the wines.

“The biggest scare to me is the longer you make wine, the more you think you can make wine,” Bertus said. “That is the biggest fault you can have. It is like tasting only your own wine. You get very narrow. We drink a lot of our own wine, but when we go out to buy wine, we may not even buy wines from the Okanagan. We will ensure that we get a bit of a broader view; that we don’t get stuck in tunnel vision. It is the same concept. You make wine and you get very confident in your process and you forget to evaluate it at some point.”

A few years ago, BC Tree Fruits asked Bertus to develop the products for its Broken Ladder brand of apple and pear cider. Bertus welcomed the assignment because it prodded him to rethink making both wine and cider. The Broken Ladder ciders turned out to be excellent; so good in fact that Bertus also introduced a line of apple cider for sale in the Maverick tasting room.

“This cider process makes you re-evaluate everything,” Bertus says. “You re-evaluate why you are doing this. You have to start thinking again about your process. I would do it again and again.”

This introspective ability is remarkable because Bertus already is well-trained and experienced after making wine in South Africa, France and, since 2010, in the Okanagan.

Bertus, who was born in 1978, holds an enology degree from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. On graduating, he started working at a large wine cooperative there before joining family-owned Avondale in 1994 as winemaker.  He came to the Okanagan early in 2009 when Elzaan, his wife (and now also an owner in the winery), established her medical practice in Osoyoos.

Schalk De Witt, Elzaan’s father, is also a doctor, having moved to Canada in 1990. While he practices in Edmonton, he has been enamored with the Okanagan Valley for many years. In 2006 and again in 2009, he bought two parcels of land in the south Okanagan for vineyards. The winery was developed after his daughter married a winemaker.

“When Bertus came into the picture, obviously, that was the way to go,” Schalk told me a few years ago. “There is more profit in making wine than in selling grapes.”

Bertus converted the 2009 purchase, then a highway-side organic farm, to a 7 ½-acre vineyard. While doing that, he also worked as the winemaker at Burrowing Owl Vineyards. He left there in 2013 to concentrate on Maverick. The winery now produces about 5,000 cases a year and is on the way to 8,000 cases.

The 2006 purchase, a 48-acre parcel, is still unplanted. “It is always good to have a bit of land in reserve,” Bertus says. “You can’t change that quickly, so if the market changes, it is good to have a little bit of land somewhere so that you can plant for the market.”

Currently, the market is buying everything that Bertus produces. Several of the whites released in spring are now sold out. However, he has refilled the pipeline with other wines, including a sparkling wine, several reds and a port-style wine.

Here are notes on the wines.

Maverick Ella Brut Rosé 2014 ($35 for 500 cases). This is a traditionally bottle-fermented sparkling wine, a blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. Such a cuvée would not be uncommon in Champagne.  This wine spent 16 months on the yeast lees. The result is a wine with toasty hints in the aroma and on the palate, along with flavours of apple and strawberry. The extremely fine bubbles give the wine a creamy texture. The finish is crisp and dry. 92.

Maverick Pinot Gris 2015 ($19 for 530 cases). This wine was fermented 75% in stainless steel, 25% in used French oak. Barrel fermentation contributes to the wine’s full texture while the stainless steel preserves the aromas and flavours of apples and pears. The wine has a refreshing finish. 91.

Maverick Chardonnay 2015 ($26.50 for 185 cases). All of Maverick’s wines are fermented with wild yeast. In the case of this Chardonnay, the ferment stopped when there still was about four per cent of residual sugar. That may account for a deliciously atypical Chardonnay – a fruit-forward wine bursting with aromas and flavours of peach, lime, lemon and grapefruit. There is also a hint of oak, for the wine was fermented in and aged six months in new French oak. 92.

Maverick Pinot Noir 2014 ($29 for 500 cases). This wine reflects Bertus’s style of winemaking: keep it simple and keep it traditional and let the vineyard shine through. The grapes are fermented in an open top vat, punched down as needed over 30 days, then aged nine months in French oak (25% new). The result is a dark, fleshy wine, with aromas and flavours of spicy cherry and with what Bertus calls “meaty, charcouterie undertones … This is the Pinot Noir style I like.” So do I. 91.

Maverick Rubeus 2014 ($25 for 650 cases). This wine started out as blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, all fermented together. In 2014 the blend was 50% Syrah, seven percent each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and, for the first time, 35% Merlot. The reason: Merlot ripens more consistently in the Maverick vineyard and that is important for effective co-fermentation. This wine has aromas and flavours of plum, black cherry and blueberry with a hint of black olive and chocolate on the lingering finish. 93.

Maverick Bush Vine Syrah 2014 ($32 for 185 cases). The Syrah vines grow on terraces at the top of the Maverick vineyard much like Syrah in Hermitage: each vine is supported by its own bamboo pole. The grapes are whole-bunch fermented in open top vats and aged 18 months in French oak barrels (three- and four-year-old). The ripe and concentrated wine begins with a hint of pepper in the aroma, along with aromas of cherry. On the palate, there are flavours of plum, fig and Black Forest cake with a lingering spicy finish. 93.

Maverick Fia 2014 ($30 for 333 cases of 500 ml bottles). This port-style wine starts by co-fermenting 60% Syrah and 40% Merlot in a bin for three or four weeks. Then fermentation is stopped by adding grape spirits on the skins and then pressing the fortified must. The wine, which now has 18% alcohol, is aged for 20 m0nths in French oak barrels. This bold and generous wine coats the palate with delicious flavours of plum, black cherry, licorice and chocolate with what the winery calls a “dry, spicy farewell” on the finish. The wine is drinking well now but has the structure to age another five or 10 years. 93.

Laughing Stock's Dark Pool and friends

Photo: Laughing Stock's David Enns

Once again, David and Cynthia Enns have looked to their former careers in finance when naming Laughing Stock’s first Port-style wine.

Canadian wineries no longer use European wine nomenclature. This fortified wine is called Dark Pool, and only those knowledgeable about high finance know what that means.

David and Cynthia explain in a covering letter with the wine. “One of the most secretive practices on Wall Street is the use of dark pools, which are off-exchange platforms that let traders buy and sell stocks anonymously,” they write. They say that this “under the radar” practice is growing quietly.

It is probably not a healthy practice for the public market but, since Bernie Sanders won’t be the next president, I can’t see who will shut it down.

Meanwhile, we have this wine. “David also kept his port project under the radar (even from Cynthia) with a small lot of Merlot wine that was quietly aged in two oak puncheons, sequestered in a corner of the winery for over five years,” the explanation continues. “This once in a decade wine project may or may not be repeated now, since the secret has been exposed.”

I can imagine what Cynthia might have said when she discovered the project and brought her shrewd financial mind to bear on it. I can almost hear her say: “You tied up how much capital for almost six years? And you expect to get what sort of return at this price?”

In David’s defense, he made 2,450 cases of the winery’s flagship wine and sells it at $45 (plus tax). That provides a good return and, given the quality of the wine, a satisfying experience for consumers.

The wine is Portfolio, the initial example of the couple using a financial term. This award winner is a favourite among wine collectors because it can be aged at least 10 years. I was able to taste a vertical last year and every vintage was drinking well except for 2003, the first Portfolio.

The third wine released this fall by Laughing Stock is a Rhone white blend fermented in the two 500-litre clay amphorae the winery purchased several years ago in Italy. “Originally used in ancient Greek and Roman days,” the winery explains, “this approach embodies the artisan desire to make wines more naturally with wild ferments and minimal intervention. We feel the amphora-made wine exhibits a greater earthiness and complexity than if it had been created in a stainless steel tank.”

Here are notes on the wines. Price do not include tax.

Laughing Stock Amphora Viognier Roussanne 2015 ($20.99 for 167 cases of 500 ml bottle. Available only at the winery, this artisanal wine is made by fermented whole bunches of grapes in two clay amphorae with native yeast. This is the third year in which the winery has made a wine in this style. It has begun to acquire a following. The wine was left on the skins for 5.5 months, compared with 2.5 months in 2014 and just five weeks in 2013. The 2015 is a richly-flavoured wine with honeyed aromas of apricots and orange peel that are echoed in the flavour. The finish is dry. Food pairing? I recommend hard Italian cheese. 91.

Laughing Stock Portfolio 2014 ($44.99 for 2,450 cases). This is 49% Merlot, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, 2% Malbec and 1% Merlot. The wine was aged  19 months in French oak barrels (40% new, 60% second fill). It is a big, robust wine (14.9% alcohol), reflecting the excellent, if hot, 2014 vintage. It begins with aromas of cherry, blackberry and spice, leading to flavours of black cherry, red and black currants and mulberries. The finish is marked with savoury and spice notes. 94.

Laughing Stock Dark Pool 2010 ($34.99 for 179 cases of 500 ml bottles). This is a fortified Merlot that aged five years and eight months in 500-litre oak puncheons. In the old days before wineries stopped using European nomenclature, this would have been called Port. Dark in colour, it has aromas of fig, stewed cherries, chocolate and oak leading to flavours of figs, dates and prunes with spicy oak on a fruity finish. 91.