Our estate Stellar Vineyard always provides us with such food-friendly Syrah fruit. Plenty of acid, balanced tannins, and plump red fruits to keep it all in check.

Matchless has always been our easy drinker, our porch pounder, our little black dress (LBD) if you will. Enough structure to hold up to your backyard BBQ, but it can also just hang out in the hammock with you. Well, the 2017 vintage is all that, and more. Way more.

My love affair with Washington Tempranillo started with a bottle of 2002 Impulsivo, Cayuse’s lovely version of the varietal from “the stones”. I began to push for us to make it right then and there. It took over a decade, but I finally got my wish. This is our second vintage, and I am still over the moon.

The 2016 vintage is a bit brighter and with slightly more tannin than past Otis Kenyon Merlots, but a touch of strawberry and cola make sure it still has that velvet-smooth mouthfeel we all love.