More about Liska

Liska is what happens when two young winemakers move to Pinot Noir country and decide to make almost everything except Pinot Noir. Draga Zheleva and Chris Butler bottle the Willamette Valley's acid-driven, cool-climate minor players instead: Riesling, Grüner Veltliner, Gewürztraminer, Gamay, Syrah, even the Savoyard grape Mondeuse.

The two met at UC Davis, where they graduated from the viticulture and enology program in 2017, then worked harvests in Germany's Mosel and in Margaret River, Australia, before settling in Oregon in 2019. Chris has also worked as assistant winemaker at Cristom. Liska's first vintage was 2021.

The winemaking is quiet and patient: wines rest on their lees in neutral barrels, hogsheads and puncheons for anywhere from five to eighteen months, so there's texture without oak flavor. The Syrah comes from Symbion Vineyard on the east side of the Eola-Amity Hills, a site planted by Cristom's founding winemaker Steve Doerner, and it shows the peppery, savory side of the grape that a cool site brings out. They use lightweight bottles and skip the foil capsule.

A couple of fun details: Draga makes the relief-print artwork for every label, each one featuring Oregon plants, and the winery is named for their rescue dog. "Liska" is a Bulgarian term of endearment for a female fox.