Rocky Pond Winery 2015 Double D Vineyard Estate La Domestique Reserve Red Wine, Columbia Valley, $50

Jonathan Kaczmarek took a roundabout path to the Washington wine industry, a two-pronged education that includes a finance degree from the University of Wisconsin and class work at South Seattle College’s Northwest Wine Academy program before making wine at Seattle’s acclaimed Soos Creek Wine Cellars. He blends both backgrounds in his work for the Dufenhorst family at Rocky Pond Winery, and he receives credit for producing this Right Bank Bordeaux-style blend of Merlot (75%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (25%) from the Dufenhorsts’ remarkable young planting along the Columbia River near Orondo. His hot ferment (90 degree Fahrenheit) and 16 months in two-year-old French oak creates a theme of bright purple fruit, akin to Marionberry and plump blueberry, backed by cassis, clove and smoky wood. Kaczmarek enjoys it with a meal featuring Kalbi Short Rib, accompanied by Klesick Family Farm sugar snap pea purée, enoki and grilled fennel marinated salad, white horse farms blueberry jam and garlic chive. The La Domestique is available in at their tasting rooms in Woodinville and downtown Chelan as well as online, which allows Kaczmarek to ship into 47 states.

Rating: Excellent

Production: 73 cases

Alcohol: 14.2%

Winery website

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