Ovum Gewurztraminer – Love Your Lovin’ Ways – Organic
Established in 2011 by Ksenija and John House, Ovum was founded in hopes of producing Oregon white wines that are honest reflections of time and place. Their low intervention production method is a commitment to letting the vintage and vineyard shine, not the vintner. Fruit comes first – our top priority is finding farmers that share our beliefs, and then getting out of the way so their hard work can be tasted.
Native ferments, no subtractions or additions, except for SO2 – extended lees contact 8-9 months, for textural complexity. All of this is done in neutral barrels of acacia and oak, as well as cement egg and Austrian cask. Ovum is solely committed to the production of white wines, mainly Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Muscat.
At Ovum, each wine is produced the same way – if the wine smells and tastes different, it has everything to do with terroir, and little to do with the winemaker. Their hope is that through attention to detail and honest technique, they can produce old-fashioned wines in the modern world.
Love your Lovin’ Ways Gewurz is not what you’ve come to expect from Gewurztraminer. This Gewurz is not about sweet canned fruit or rose extract – Love your Lovin Ways is about restraint, elegance and purity of place.
The 2019 offering is particularly unusual for it’s dominant blood orange aromatics, and length of minerality on the palate. Yes, somehow this Gewurz shows gobs of minerality. Unfined, Unfiltered (for the first time), native yeast, nothing added except a touch of sulfur…this is a magical mystery wine for the ages. Vines planted in 1976.
The nose surfs the edge of tropical hedonism and is quickly pulled back into the citrus realm of flamed orange peel and ripe lemon. The cool summer left the acid intact, which is noticeable on the surprisingly zippy mid-palate. The combination of serpentine/galet soils lends this Gewurztraminer a depth of minerality.
93 points, Wine and Spirits: Pineapple, Cara Cara orange, litchi, pepper, and apple all combine in this gewurz (a wine that changes its name slightly with each vintage). Lean, fresh, rosy, and suave, despite this wine’s full flavors, it’s dry and racy, unusually acid-driven—a lemony gewurz in riesling’s clothing, with a vibrancy that lasts. For white sausages