“My wife calls it my quarter million dollars PhD in grape growing.”

This wry observation is Washington State wine pioneer Norm McKibben’s take on his first, failed, attempt to grow wine in this dynamic new wine region – he planted the wrong grapes in the wrong place, and after nine years wound up tearing them out and returning the land to wheat.

McKibben however is an astute businessman and learned well from his mistake – so well in fact that he is now full or part owner of two of Washington’s most famed vineyards, Seven Hills and Pepper Bridge. I repeat his self-deprecating story because it is so wonderfully emblematic of the entrepreneurial, make-it-up-as-we-go-along spirit that pervades the young Washington wine industry, a region that’s producing some of the most exciting new wine being made anywhere.

At first KcKibben was content to sell his much sought-after grapes to other wineries but in 1998 he started making his own wine and there was no expensive mistake this time. At a dinner in Walla Walla last year he served a Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 and despite coming from vines only four years old, it was stunning. Unfortunately it’s now pretty hard to find, but that’s not the case with the equally impressive Pepper Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 ($55).

It’s a beautifully crafted, highly polished cab that’s closer to the Medoc than California in style. Yes, it is packed with the sorts of lush, ripe fruit flavors one expects in a new world red but these are balanced by a fine minerality, good acidity and a restrained use of oak that results in a generally more elegant, European style wine.

It seems that McKibben’s PhD was not entirely wasted after all.