Style: Red Wine

Producer: Ovum

Grape: 100% Syrah

Where: Columbia Gorge, Washington

Country: USA

TAste: Ovum, Columbia Gorge, Syrah has a striking dark purple color of light concentration. The nose is roasted plums spread over grilled bread spiked with salty black olives. Blueberry, thyme and black peppercorn emerge with decanting. Bright acidity greets the palate, followed by tea-like tannins that have refined via extended barrel aging. This wine cries out for roasted salt & pepper lamb with a hunk of sourdough.

Organic Farming

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Founded by husband-and-wife duo John House and Ksenija Kostic in 2011,  Ovum is a celebration of the diverse expressions of Oregon Riesling. After years of learning the intricacies of the Willamette Valley while working together at Chehalem, John and Ksenija set off to further investigate the myriad terroirs of Oregon through the lens of Riesling, and now source fruit from through the state. They have found sites with blustery Pacific winds, extreme diurnal shifts, and rocky, well-draining soils.

Ovum Syrah from the Columbia Gorge, USA, is a cool-climate, elegantly structured red wine known for its dark fruit (plum, blueberry), peppery spice (black pepper, thyme), and earthy notes with tea-like tannins and bright acidity, sourced from a single vineyard on the Washington side, offering a fresh, savory expression of Syrah with natural fermentations and extended aging for texture.

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Columbia Gorge is the most similar in degree days, rainfall, avg. wind speed, UV and water retention in soil to Tain l’hermitage, Rhone Valley. Sourced from a single vineyard site on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge looking over the Columbia River at 1,200 ft. elevation. Soil: Chemawa loam (wind blown volcanic soils). Fermentation with native yeast fermentation, 50% whole-cluster with occasional punch downs over 3-4 weeks. Free run wine was racked into 500L used Francois Freres and Mercurey puncheons and aged 14-18 months. Unfined and unfiltered.