How Russia, France And The American Dream Gave Rise To Washington State’s First Luxury Wine

When Paul Golitzin was growing up in Snohomish, Washington, his parents told him stories of his famous relative, Prince Lev Galitzine, the acclaimed winemaker to Russian Czar Nicholas II. He also met his great uncle, André Tchelistcheff, renown Napa Valley winemaker, several times when his father invited André to their Washington home to provide advice on his hobby winemaking business. Eventually the hobby business became a real business – Quilceda Creek Winery in 1978, founded by Paul’s parents, Alexander and Jeannette Golitzin. But it wasn’t until Paul became a teenager and his family took him on a trip to Bordeaux, France, that he fell in love with wine.

“I was so inspired by the beautiful wines I tasted in Bordeaux at Chateau Margaux, Mouton-Rothschild and other estates,” Paul Golitzin reported in a telephone interview. “Plus the beauty of the vineyards and estates really impressed me.”

So when Golitzin returned home to Washington State, he started helping his father in the cellar of Quilceda Creek more frequently. “I’ve always loved to experiment,” explained Golitzin. “So we started adopting some of the methods we saw in Bordeaux, such as careful sorting of grapes, extended maceration of up to 4 weeks, rather than the 2 weeks we were doing, and aging in new French oak barrels for 20 to 24 months, instead of 12 months.”

Over the years, these modifications paid off, and with a focus solely on Washington State cabernet sauvignon, Quilceda Creek slowly gained the attention of famous wine critics. Today it is considered to be one of Washington State’s top luxury wine producers, with retail prices averaging $200 per bottle, and multiple 100-point scores over the past three decades.

About Quilceda Creek Winery and Its Progress To Luxury Wine Status

“My father asked me to take over as winemaker in 1992,” stated Golitzin. Mentored by his great uncle, Andre Tchelistcheff and son Dimitri Tchelistcheff, Golitzin rounded out his wine education by taking chemistry and biology classes at a local university. “But we have always stayed true to our vision of only focusing on making the highest quality cabernet sauvignon from Washington State.”

The family winery farms over 200 acres of prime vineyards in the Columbia Valley of Washington, with the majority of the grapes coming from the very prestigious appellations of Red Mountain AVA and Horse Heaven Hills AVA. The winery itself is headquartered in Snohomish, which is about an hour’s drive northwest of Seattle. Altogether, Quilceda Creek  hires over 70 employees to work in the vineyard and winery.

According to Golitzin, the secret to crafting great wine is to “have access to great vineyards, farm them correctly, and be super selective about only using the best lots.” To do this, they harvest by hand, selecting only the best grape bunches, and then passing those through a de-stemmer. Next the grapes go through an optical laser sorter, so that only perfect berries go into the wine fermentation tanks.

“We have set up the winery so that each block of grapes has its own fermentation tank,” explains Golitzin. In this way the fermenting wine can express the true characteristics of each vineyard site in the 60 individual tanks. Once fermentation is complete, the different lots are tasted, with only the best lots going into the final blend. Then the wine ages for 20 months in 100% new French oak barrels. After bottling, it is sold to a waitlist of customers, including wine club members and high-end restaurants and wine shops.

This year Quilceda Creek is set to release its 40^th vintage, and they plan to continue their relentless focus on quality and pushing boundaries. To illustrate this, Golitzin’s favorite saying is: “The best Quilceda that has ever been made – is the next”.

All of this striving for perfection over the years has paid off. Quilceda Creek was the first domestic winery outside of California to achieve a perfect 100-point score from Wine Advocate (Robert Parker) for the 2003 vintage of their Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Since then they have gone on to win six more 100-point scores from Wine Advocate and three 100-point scores from Decanter. Quilceda has also been named three times in the top 10 wines of the year from Wine Spectator, and received best Cabernet Sauvignon of the year from Wine Enthusiast. In 2021 they were the only U.S. wine to receive a 100-point score from Decanter.

Managing Global Warming and Creating the Future at Quilceda Creek

“We have seen a huge difference in the heat spikes over the past 40 years,” reported Golitzin, “so we have made some changes in the vineyard to manage global warming issues.” These include leaving extra leaves on the vines to prevent sunburn, using higher density trellising so the vines have more shade, adding misters to help cool the vines when temperatures soar over 100 F, and harvesting about two weeks earlier.

“Our main challenge is Mother Nature,” Golitzin admitted. “You never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes it is an early frost, and other times we get 115 F degree days.”

Despite these issues, Golitzin is positive about the future. “We are getting ready to release a new wine that we have named Tchelistcheff, in honor of our family. It is from a special part of our Mach One Vineyard where the vines are located in a small protected amphitheater of rock. The grapes are from Clone 412, and the wine is very distinctive. This first release will be from the 2019 vintage.”

Golitzin is also excited about the future of Washington State wines. “Most people think of California wines,” he stated, “but our wines are great. Washington is a newer region, and I am hopeful that others will learn how good the wines of Washington State are.”