For this shipment, we wanted to take you on a tour around British Columbia. This wine brings you to the northern reaches of winegrowing in the province, to Kamloops and the Thompson Valley.
It’s a short, continental growing season, which means there’s a limited window for ripening fruit. It makes it ideally suited to earlier ripening varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It also means there are significant diurnal shifts, or differences in temperature between the day and night. For most people, it means putting a sweater on as the sun sets on the patio. For grapes, it helps to preserve acidity, and it's what gives these wines their distinctive freshness. Oh, and there just so happens to be a swath of limestone, which will excite any Burgundy fan.
Monte Creek was another winery – like Fox & Archer from our June shipment – that turned my head at the National Wine Awards of Canada. And it wasn’t just me. The 2019 Ancient Waters Chardonnay won a platinum medal, the top honour at the competition. This wine, stylistically, is a new look for Monte Creek, which matches the elegant new label and the extensive expansions at the winery, both in the tasting room and cellar. And it feels like the best is still to come.
–GM
Tasting Note
It's easy to see why this won over a room of wine critics. It's flinty and reductive, a style that's both trendy and timeless. What does that mean exactly? It’s not the same as minerality, or chalk or salinity. The closest comparison, at least for me, is the smell of a struck match. Admittedly, that sounds a bit weird, but it adds something compelling to Chardonnay.
Chardonnay is shy on its own, so it needs some help from the winemaker to build complexity. In the past, that was oak – and lots of it. Today, winemakers are using lees, and reductive winemaking, to add depth while still retaining the purity of fruit. And this is the perfect example. The bright, zesty citrus fruit speaks to Monte Creek's Thompson Valley terroir, with added texture from aging in a combination of concrete eggs and seasons barrels. And, of course, that added flinty complexity.
Food Pairing
Lobster rolls or pork belly and scallops