WineInk: Quilceda Creek

In Aspen, we love our Cabernet Sauvignon.

Open any wine list in our restaurants, and you’ll find pages upon pages of cab-based wines from Bordeaux and Napa. But there is one wine region, not that far away, that is often underrepresented here, and it is our loss. The wines of Washington state, particularly the Cabernet Sauvignon releases, offer outstanding quality.

Walk into local liquor stores and wine shops, and the wines from Washington generally occupy a small section or are occasionally mixed by grape variety with California and Oregon offerings. Even extensive wine lists outside of the Great Northwest seem to be light on wines produced in the Evergreen State. And that is unfortunate, as the wines from Washington have never been better. Merlot and Syrah from a southeastern pocket of the state in Walla Walla are staples, and Riesling has long been a well-known sweet spot in Washington wines.

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But it is Cabernet Sauvignon, the most popular wine among American consumers, that has emerged as the grape that stands out in the broad portfolio of Washington’s still-youthful wine industry.

A key reason for that emergence has been the outstanding wines produced by Quilceda Creek, which is based in Snohomish. Residing at or near the top of any list of Washington’s signature wineries, Quilceda Creek has become the benchmark for Washington Cabernet Sauvignon and its wines can be found here in Aspen, holding spots on prestigious lists including Cache-Cache,  Caribou Club, Steak House #316, and The French Alpine Bistro amongst others.

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“When treated with the meticulous attention to detail that we employ, the best Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best from Napa and Bordeaux,” said Paul Golitzin, the second-generation director of winemaking at Quilceda Creek. “Our wines incorporate both the elegance and acidity of the traditional Bordeaux style, as well as the phenolic ripeness of the ‘New World.'”

Indeed, Quilceda Creek was the first domestic winery outside of California to earn a 100-point score from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (in 2006 for the 2002 and 2003 vintages) and has since gone on to earn 26 100-point scores from a plethora of critics. Four of their releases have ranked on Wine Spectator’s list of Top 10 Wines of the Year.

Quilceda Creek has been laser-focused on producing the very best Cabernet Sauvignon possible since its inception. That focus was a cornerstone of their founding.

“My great uncle, André Tchelistcheff (perhaps the most important early figure in the emergence of Napa Valley wines and Cabernet Sauvignon in America), was the one who first advised my family that our land (Washington) was perfect for producing Cabernet Sauvignon. He famously said ‘Make one thing, and make it well,’ which is exactly what we have been doing ever since.”

Paul’s father, Alex Golitzin, was born in France, and in 1946, his family emigrated to San Francisco where, serendipitously, they were sponsored by Tchelistcheff himself. Alex became enchanted by wine as a youth and, in the mid-1970s while working as a chemical engineer in Seattle, began to dabble in winemaking, producing one barrel a year of a “trial” Cabernet Sauvignon in his garage, made from Washington State grapes. He had found his calling, and in 1978, he and his wife Jeannette Golitzin moved the family to Snohomish to establish Quilceda Creek, which is family-owned-and-operated to this day. The winery was just the 12th-bonded winery (post-Prohibition) in Washington. For perspective, today there are over 1,000 bonded wineries in the state, and the Washington wine industry is an $8 billion business.

“I joined my father as winemaker in 1992,” Paul said, “and while our quality and international recognition has certainly grown in the time since then, our approach has not changed. We keep it simple; we’re single-minded in a sense,” he said in an understatement.

Quilceda Creek produces four 100% Cabernet Sauvignon bottlings from three estate vineyards, each of which is highly-sought after by Cabernet connoisseurs; these are Champoux Vineyard, Mach One Vineyards in the Columbia Valley, and the Galitzine Vineyard in Red Mountain. Their flagship wine, and perhaps the most well-known release, is the Quilceda Creek Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which blends fruit from the Champoux and Mach One vineyards. They also make a Cabernet led red blend — the Quilceda Creek CVR Red Wine that utilizes fruit from all three of the vineyards

Quilceda Creek has extensive holdings in the Champoux Vineyard (yes, pronounced “shampoo”), one of the oldest and most prestigious vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA of the Columbia Valley.

“We’ve sourced fruit from Champoux since 1986 and today own and farm 134 of its 169 acres,” Paul explained.  

Originally planted in the early 1970s, Champoux is a source for some of the world’s most sought-after Cabernet Sauvignons. These are powerful wines heralded for their gorgeous fruit, balanced acidity, and elegant tannins. According to him, the Horse Heaven Hills AVA is one of the warmer appellations in the Columbia Valley. The Champoux Vineyard sits in the foothills at an elevation of 600-800 feet. It benefits from cool, nighttime air draining down from higher elevations and accumulating across the south-facing site. This diurnal shift moderates the daytime warmth of the vineyard, contributing to balanced, long-lived wines with natural acidity.

Also, in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA is the stunning Mach One vineyard, which sits astride the mighty Columbia River just fifty feet above the water line in a basalt rock amphitheater that sees sunshine 300, or so, days each year. It is the source for a pair of wines: the Palengat Cabernet Sauvignon (named for Paul’s mother’s family) and the Tchelistcheff Cabernet Sauvignon (named for André, of course).

But one of the hottest wine appellations in the world, both figuratively and literally, is the Red Mountain AVA in south-central Washington in the Yakima Valley. Quilceda Creek has holdings there, as well.

“Galitzine Vineyard is named in honor of my family’s heritage of winemaking. The vineyard spans 17 acres and sits in an ideal region for growing red wine grapes,” Paul explains. As is the case in their other vineyards, clonal selection is an important part of the Quilceda Creek DNA, and this vineyard is planted to the Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 8. “Galitzine is typically one of our first vineyards to be harvested in late September.”

This year marks the 45^th anniversary of Quilceda Creek’s first vintage in 1979 when it produced just 150 cases. In the ensuing decades, the Golitzin family has established a consistent tradition of setting the highest standards for terroir-specific Cabernet Sauvignon while contributing to the growth of the Washington wine industry.

A legacy of which Uncle André would be proud.