Pairing BC Cheese with Culmina Wine

Culmina Family Estate Winery was founded by the Triggs family atop the Golden Mile Bench in British Columbia’s South Okanagan and the wines are crafted with care from grapes grown on their family estate. Winemaker Jean-Marc Enixon is a classically trained French vigneron and winemaker who has made wine in France, California, China and now Canada. His education and training encompass both winemaking and grape-growing disciplines, giving him perspective on the entire process, from vineyard to grape to bottle. In this discussion, we are pairing a couple of their current offerings with some cheeses we picked up in Granville Island at Benton Brother’s Cheese.

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BC Wine Wednesdays

Culmina Unicus Gruner 2021

There are two Gruners on offer from Culmina right now and the 2021 is more fruit-forward with baked pears, some pink grapefruit, mango, good acidity, and a wonderful texture. I loved it with the Farmhouse Pyramid Cheese from Agassiz, as this creamy, sharp cheese just amplified the ripe fruit and creaminess in the wine while echoing its acidity.

Culmina Hypothesis 2017

This is the flagship wine from Culmina, a blend of 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, 20% Cabernet France, 10% Malbec and 6% Petit Verdot. All varietals are fermented in oak separately as each one requires a different toast level. The grapes come from the Arise and Stan’s Bench on the Golden Mile and the wine is a wonderful example of a blockbuster red that will age gracefully. There are flavours of dark plum and dried fig with some noticeable tannins, tobacco, and a peppery note. The Kootenay Meadows Alpindon, an aged cheese made with raw milk from cows grazing on richly green grass in Creston, BC is a good pairing for this wine. It’s similarly made in the style of cheese from France’s Savoie region and has a sweet, caramel beginning and a complex nutty finish with a bit of peppery spice, which complements the notes in the Hypotheis while being rich enough to hold up to the acidity and tannin.

Culmina Malbec 2019 

This wine comes from a single vineyard on the Golden Bench and is aged in French Oak, with 23% of it new. It’s a deep purple in colour and has notes of dark red plum, dried fig, some baking spice, mild tannins, and good acidity.  The Smit’s and Co.w Aged Goats Gouda is creamy with butterscotch notes that mellow the acidity in the wine and allow the fruit to express itself.