Pepper Bridge Apogee
2010
A family-owned business, L'Ecole Nº 41 was founded by Jean and Baker Ferguson. Today, the winery is owned and operated by their daughter and son-in-law, Megan and Martin Clubb. Built in 1915, the schoolhouse is located in historic Frenchtown, a small community just west of Walla Walla, Washington. Frenchtown derived its name from the many French-Canadians who settled the valley during the early 1800s. Legend has it, these men of French descent were raising grapes and producing wine. By the...
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This vineyard, planted in the terraced remnants of ice age flood deposits, is one of the Walla Walla Valley’s most reputable vineyards. Apogee was the first wine produced from this Certified Sustainable and Certified Salmon Safe vineyard.
A prolonged winter and cool spring set the stage for a later than normal bud break, occurring about the first of May. The cool start quickly abated, with near perfect weather in June. A sunny, hotter than normal July surged heat units, creating a delicate balancing act in managing deficit irrigation. We were a little more aggressive in green thinning and west canopy thinning for sunburn, reducing crop yields a little below normal. Harvest started early in the second week of September, ramping up quickly with ideal weather in September and early October. Compressed into an unusual one month harvest, we finished the second week of October, prior to an unseasonal early freeze in Eastern Washington.
Nearly 30 years of meticulous vineyard management and winemaking experience are fundamental to the quality of our wines and reputation for excellence. We are engaged in growing and making 100% of our wines.
Each lot was hand harvested ripe and gently crushed into 1.5 ton stainless steel fermenters. Gentle handling of the fruit through hand punch downs and gravity assisted movements were utilized throughout the entire winemaking process. The wine was cleanly racked to 100% small French oak barrels, 50% new, with five rackings over 22 months.
This bold, sophisticated and complex wine has dark, brooding aromas of game and spice with hints of sweet tobacco and leather. Dense dark fruit is wrapped in nuances of smoke, cocoa and mint with firm tannins on a persistent finish.
An attractive nose of wild blackberry, plum, sweet tobacco and nutmeg. Full-bodied with firm tannins. Structured with vivid acidity on the palate. Chocolate and black fruit on the mid-palate, followed through a long, flavorful finish.
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The 2018 Apogee Pepper Bridge Vineyard is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon yet includes 27% Merlot, 14% Malbec and 3% Cabernet Franc, all brought up in 50% new French oak. It has a gorgeous, Bordeaux-like nose of red and black currants, lead pencil, leafy tobacco, and graphite. This carries to a medium to full-bodied red with terrific overall balance, remarkable purity of fruit, and both tannins and acidity. It can be enjoyed today yet will benefit 2-3 years of bottle age and I suspect have 20 years of prime drinking. It's a beautiful wine.
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Black fruit and spice on the nose; savoury, quite fine-grained tannins and fresh acids on the palate. Good concentration and balance of tannins.
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A blend of one-half cabernet, thirty percent merlot, and the rest malbec and cabernet franc, this wine gives off an impression of loess even in its aromatics, where scents of red fruit seem sprinkled with wind-borne dust. The red plum and red cherry flavors meet a leafy, vinous, turfy savor, needing cellar time before unleashing it on a steak.
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Dark ruby-red. Superripe but not roasted on the nose, with aromas of cassis, blackberry, violet and dark chocolate complicated by mint and mocha nuances from the Malbec. Plush, rich, tactile wine with a distinct pyrazine character that should be transformed into tobacco in a few years, typical of the Pepper Bridge vineyard. At once creamy and juicy, this wine finishes with suave tannins and lovely sneaky length. Walla Walla's cool sites often perform very well in the warm years, and this is prime example.
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The 2021 Apogee Pepper Bridge Vineyard is a similar blend and checks in as 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 12% Malbec, and 3% Cabernet Franc. It’s more inward and tighter, with some obvious oak as well as beautiful cassis and currant fruits that give way to more graphite, tobacco, and crushed stone-like minerality. It's medium to full-bodied, has terrific purity, and a layered, focused mouthfeel that will benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age. It shows the ripe yet not heavy style of the vintage beautifully.
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