Pepper Bridge Apogee
2014
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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Over 30 years of meticulous vineyard management is fundamental to the quality of L’Ecole wines and their reputation for excellence. They are engaged in growing and making 100% of their wines. Hand harvested with an average of 25.6° brix, picked from October 2-9, 2014. Temperatures cooled mid-August stretching out the hang-time resulting in a rich and vibrant structure with bold color development, delivered ample sugars and strong acids.
Each lot, with over 30 years of meticulous vineyard management, was hand harvested ripe and gently crushed into 1.5 and 5 ton open-top stainless-steel fermenters. The fruit was carefully handled through hand punch downs and gravity assisted movements throughout the winemaking process. The wine was cleanly racked to 100% small French Oak barrels, 50% new, with five rackings over 22 months.
Spicy bold aromas, dark fruit flavours, robust tannins, and rich structure. This elegant and complex wine has brooding aromas of black cherry, cocoa, fresh nutmeg and leather. Flavours of tobacco, dark fruit and chocolate are wrapped in smooth tannins on a rich, lengthy 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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