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Signature Wines and Wineries of Washington
TOP: The Great Room at Quilceda Creek's Estate in Snohomish provides a
relaxing setting for enjoying worid-class wines.
BELOW: Ouilceda Creek's age-worthv wines are sought after by collectors
and equally prized by enthusiasts who eniov the wines on release.
Photographs by John Kaplan Photography
consistent and of the utmost quality. With the belief that great
wine begins in great vineyards, Quilceda Creek set its sights
on acquiring a handful of top vineyard sites in the mid-1990s,
a move that catapulted the wines to a new level of excellence.
In 1997, the winery formed a partnership with Paul Champoux
and a few other marquee wineries to purchase Mercer
Ranch Vineyard (renamed Champoux Vineyard) in the Horse
Heaven Hills AVA. Quilceda Creek became majority owners of
Champoux in 2014. One of the oldest vineyards in Washington,
Champoux is considered by many Washington winemakers to
be the best Cabernet Sauvignon site in the state. Buoyed by the
quality of Champoux Cabernet, the winery continued its Horse
Heaven Hills expansion, purchasing a four-and-one-half-acre
site adjacent to Champoux Vineyard in 2006. The vineyard is
named Palengat, Jeannette's maiden name. Other Horse Heaven
Hills non-estate vineyard sources include the south-facing Lake
Wallula Vineyards, overlooking the Columbia River.
Recognizing the importance of diverse vineyard holdings, the
family planted the 17-acre Galitzine Vineyard estate in 2001 in
the Red Mountain AVA, a small but highly acclaimed growing
region also recognized for outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon. The
vineyard is named after Alex's father who revised the spelling
