Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 34

Quilceda Creek
WASHINGTON | HORSE HEAVEN HILLS
This is the ﬁrst Top 100 honor for Quilceda Creek and its range of
seamless reds drawn from prime Washington vineyards.

Ovum
OREGON | ROGUE VALLEY
John and Ksenija House seek out old-vine white varieties in
Oregon, then do their best to stay out of the way.
JOHN AND KSENIJA HOUSE STARTED PURSUING the
mysteries of white wine in Oregon after spending a number of years employed at Chehalem,
where Ksenija was the cellarmaster and John
directed sales. Inspired by Chehalem founder
Harry Peterson-Nedry's love for Alsace whites,
they devoted Ovum entirely to riesling, gewurztraminer, muscat and white blends, mostly from
old-vine sources. Off The Grid, their top-scoring
riesling this year, comes from a southern Oregon site called Cedar Ranch, in the little-known
Illinois Valley. Once owned by hashish dealers
(and later seized by the federal government), the
unique high-elevation site has soils riddled with
serpentine and river cobble and grows a one-of-akind wine. John and Ksenija make it as they do all
their wines, combining lots drawn from concrete
eggs, steel tanks and large Austrian casks to create haunting textures and a pure terroir signature.
-P.J.C.

PAUL GOLITZIN

2016 Horse Heaven Hills Palengat Red ($150, 95
points) Palengat is a south-facing vineyard on Phinny
Hill in the Horse Heaven Hills, adjacent to the most
storied vineyard on that hill, Champoux. This wine
blends 83 percent cabernet sauvignon with merlot
and cabernet franc. The franc provides a cool sheen,
a whiff of the savory sage-like scents that roll across
the vast plains overlooking the Columbia River. There
is plenty of succulent fruit here, but your attention
wanders to where the tobacco and garrigue scents
gather and inform the fruit with a ﬁne, powdery grit.

2018 Rogue Valley Off The Grid Cedar Ranch
Riesling ($30, 95 points) John House believes that
Ted Gerber, who farms this and another vineyard
source for Ovum, is one of the most intuitive growers working in Oregon today. This wine's aromas are
boundless, with scents of lemon peel, scallion, petrol,
saffron, cedar tips, peach and quince. It starts out
broad-shouldered-a creamy attack of spiced pear
and peach-only to tense up and become sinewy,
energized by jubilant, invigorating acidity.
2018 Eola-Amity Hills Memorista Riesling ($30,
93 points) Memorista, which typically comes from a
small block of close-spaced riesling at Argyle's Lone
Star Vineyard, is all about tension and structure in
2018, its aromas of mint, sour apple and lemon pith
carried with unbridled energy. Acidity peals across
the palate like a rocket, framed by lemon-lime and
salt, bringing a tingle to the ﬁnish.

FOUNDED:

2011
OWNERS/
WINEMAKERS:

John House &
Ksenija Kostic
House
ACRES OWNED:

None
ANNUAL
PRODUCTION:

8,000 cases
34

FOUNDED:

1978
OWNER:

Paul Golitzin

WINE & SPIRITS

BUYING GUIDE 2021

2017 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
($200, 94 points) Quilceda Creek's ﬂagship cabernet is a blend from four vineyards, including estate
fruit from Palengat and Champoux. The wine leads
with scents of tar, tanbark and briar, set against fruit
that's bright red in cast. It feels generous and precise
at once, the fruit exuberant, delivered in a tailored
sleeve of tannins and mineral dust. It's seamless yet
ﬁrm, ready for roast lamb.

WINEMAKERS:

Alex Stuart,
Paul Golitzin
VITICULTURIST:

2018 Rogue Valley To Love Somebody Gerber
Vineyard Gewurztraminer ($30, 93 points)
Ted Gerber's home ranch in the Rogue Valley
includes a little more than ten acres of gewurztraminer planted in the mid-1970s. Ovum's 2018 is
gewurz in a streamlined form, with dry litchi and
lemon scents and a lean, sunny energy that feels
elegant and lithe.

ALEX GOLITZIN'S FAMILY TREE reaches back to
Russian royalty, but to wine lovers, his maternal uncle may impress the most: André Tchelistcheff, legendary winemaker at Beaulieu
Vineyards. Golitzin was working as an engineer
in Washington State when Tchelistcheff came
north to consult for Chateau Ste. Michelle; he
became Golitzin's guide and tutor in winemaking. Golitzin's son Paul has run the winery since
1992, developing four exceptional estate vineyards: Champoux (with some of the oldest cabernet vines in Washington), Mach One and Palengat in the Horse Heaven Hills, and Galitzine
in Red Mountain. The modern Quilceda Creek
style originates with Paul. He aims for harmonious, ﬁnely crafted wines drawn from low-yield,
high-density plantings. The fruit is fastidiously
sorted and gently handled, resulting in wines
that are deeply structured yet suave and velvety.
They stand out as some of the most texturally
seductive wines in Washington State. -P.J.C.

Dan Nickolaus
ACRES OWNED:

134
ANNUAL
PRODUCTION:

12,000 cases
ESTATE GROWN:

80%

2016 Red Mountain Galitzine Vineyard Cabernet
Sauvignon ($200, 94 points) Golitzin often holds
his Red Mountain bottling back an additional year to
let its coiled energy settle. This comes from Quilceda's 17-acre high-density planting devoted entirely to
clone 8 cabernet sauvignon. The wine has windborne
herb scents of wild sage along with cigar box, cedar
and smoke. Then it tastes like a compote of dark
berry fruit drizzled with olive oil; the texture is massive and muscular, ﬂecked with ﬁne soil-like tannins.
For the cellar.

Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020

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