Our tasting at Checkmate didn’t take as long as expected (this was a theme of the trip, most wineries didn’t really know how long everything would take, so when booking experiences, we were booked for longer than necessary), so we had some time to stop in at an old favorite, without an appointment. I’ve always loved the tasting room here. Huge vaulted ceilings, tons of space, it’s almost majestic. With COVID-19 top of mind, they have made significant changes to the look of the tasting room, without sacrificing the feel of the room.
We entered to an empty tasting room, just one staff member there to greet us. They had a few tasting ‘stations’ set up, all socially distanced, and the staff member poured the wine for us, and slid it across the long tasting bar. We were never close to anyone, and felt perfectly safe the entire time.
To the wine!
SAFETY SCORE: 9
They’ve done everything they can, but it’s indoors with no special ventilation so there is no doubt guests are more susceptible to other guests not following the rules and getting too close. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a tasting here, however.
Next up, we headed to Le Vieux Pin which I already reported on, out of order, so now we head over to their sister winery, La Stella!
Confessions of a Huge Wine-R 