We love exploring new wine regions and discovering new wineries. This was our goal on our first tour to the Lake Chelan viticultural region of Washington state. We were specifically looking for wineries that make wines from the grapes grown here because we wanted to taste the difference the terroir makes.
Lake Chelan Wine Region
Twenty years ago, Lake Chelan area was also famous for its cherries, apples, and pears. But then a few people thought, why don’t we try planting grapes and making wines instead of growing boring pit fruits?!
This move was inspired by the success of other farmers in Eastern Washington who converted orchards into vineyards and earned acclaim for their wines.
In a short twenty years later, the wine industry is booming in Lake Chelan, and over 25 wineries are making award-winning wines. And now Lake Chelan is more than family vacation land on the shores of one of the largest lakes in the United States. Now it has another attraction on top of all outdoorsy things you can do – go wine swinging at the local wineries.
Rocky Pond Winery
One of the first stops on our tour was the boutique Rocky Pond Winery in downtown Chelan. While their tasting room has an inviting modern style with a lounge feel, it’s not “an urban winery.” They grow grapes for their own wine production as well as for other wineries in Lake Chelan.
The idea of starting their own winery came to David and Michelle Dufenhorst while bicycling through European vineyards. Three years later, they bought one-acre land in Eastern Washington and thought we’ll just plant a few vines and dabble in winemaking. “Bitten by the wine bug,” David and Michelle couldn’t stop there.
Research and consultations with winemaker and vineyard manager followed, who confirmed that their instinct was right. With the acquisition of the prized Clos CheValle and Double D vineyards, Rocky Pond Winery was born.
Today Rocky Pond has two tasting rooms: one in Chelan (shown in our video) and one in Woodinville, Washington.
Rocky Pond Wine
In 2019 Rocky Pond wines have won numerous awards in state and regional wine competitions. After tasting their wines we definitely marked the winery as one we should keep an eye on. And we are not alone. Wine Press Northwest also named it as 2019 Winery to Watch.
During our visit we tasted two white wines, one rose, and one red wine:
- 2017 Glacial Treasure White Blend
- 2017 Gewurztraminer
- 2018 Rose of Pinot Noir
- 2016 La Domestique Red Blend
2017 Gewurztraminer was our favorite when we tasted Rocky Pond’s wines. It also made to top three whites we tasted on our tour in the Lake Chelan wine region.
We look forward to our next visit to Rocky Pond’s tasting lounge and following their winemaking progress.