QUILCEDA CREEK, Snohomish
Established in 1978 by Alex and Jeannette Golitzin, Quilceda Creek is located outside Seattle, and owns vineyards in eastern Washington: Galitzine Vineyard in the Red Mountain AVA, plus Palengat and (66% of) Champoux Vineyards, both in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA. Alongside these, Quilceda Creek creates its wines from just two other sites in the Red Mountain and Horse Heaven Hills appellations: Wallula and Wallula Lake Vineyards, both managed by Dan Nickolaus. A pioneer in the state, Quilceda Creek was Washington’s 12th bonded winery.
Part of the remarkable story of these wines has been the consistency of their brilliance from the very beginning. Alex’s uncle is the late, renowned Napa winemaker and consultant, André Tchelistcheff, who is attributed with defining many of California’s premium wine styles, including Napa Cabernet as we know it today. André mentored Alex and guided him through making his first wines at Quilceda Creek, helping to define the supple elegant style that remains the Quilceda hallmark. Alex began in a simple shed, with largely reclaimed equipment in rural Snohomish (just north of Seattle). By the early 1990s he and his son, Paul, began experimenting with a Reserve label. It was then that Paul pushed for the use of more new French oak rather than the four-year-old barrels that his father had used until then.
Since 1998, under the tutelage of both his great-uncle and his father, Paul Golitzin has been winemaker, achieving stunningly consistent accolades. Paul’s style is full-bodied, balanced and powerful wines with enough new oak to support the bold fruit, and always with incredible aging potential. The 2002 Cabenet Sauvignon was awarded 100 points by Robert Parker, the first for any North-west winery. Nonetheless, the true refinement and elegance of these wines is revealed with bottle aging. Paul sells his Tarransaud barriques to other wineries after their second use – part of an incredibly meticulous program of élevage and aging. In 2011, a completely new winery replaced the garage that had been used since the beginning of Quilceda Creek’s winemaking. The wines are Vegan-friendly.
Interesting fact: Golitzin’s relative (the family’s heritage is Russian), Pavel Tchelitchew was the artist selected to design the 1956 Mouton-Rothschild label.
