Winery - L'Ecole No. 41
* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
The blend includes 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Cabernet Franc, which adds some nice texture to the nose. It’s very ripe and somewhat alcoholic, with straightforward, jammy fruit balanced against firm acids and tannins. Big, bordering on rustic, and delicious.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Features beautiful integration of oak spice and waxy, pear-like fruit. Seamless and multidimensional, the flavors unfold in your mouth and seduce you with their balance, lingering gently on the finish.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Nobody in the country is making better Sémillon than L’Ecole, and this estate bottling is the best of the best. Rich, ripe and seductive, it layers delicious fruit and herbs in a creamy wine that lingers beautifully. Just the right amount of oak completes it.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Barrel fermentation adds a lot of flavor and power to L’Ecole’s white wines, and the Chardonnay is no exception. Punchy fruit, pervasive oak, and enough tartness to keep this wine rocking. A lively, intelligent and always interesting wine, it provides convincing evidence that Washington Chardonnay need never be dull. —P.G.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Mostly Seven Hills Vineyard fruit, this Bordeaux blend is spicier, livelier and more assertive than its sister blend Apogee. The fruit has more vivid berry components, and the wine sets up more astringent and firm.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Fresh figs and citrus characterize this blend of 85% Sémillon and 15% Sauvignon Blanc from some top Columbia Valley vineyards. Sur lie aging adds a creamy concentration, and malolactic fermentation cuts the acids. Good winemaking adds up to a beautiful bottle at a fair price.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
70% Sémillon and 30% Sauvignon Blanc. The vineyard’s new planting of Sauvignon Blanc definitely adds a racy, sculpted aspect to the plumper, more floral Sémillon. The blend works synergistically, so flavors express both the melon and pear foundation of the Sémillon, and the more herbal precision of the Sauvignon Blanc.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
In the glass there is a sense of depth that goes beyond anything previously apparent; the mixed aromas of flower, berry and chocolate-covered rock lead into a wine of presence and power, its pretty, spicy berry and cherry flavors tightly wound and wrapped in seductive but lightly applied layers of chocolate and caramel.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
There are three benches at the estate vineyard —west, north and south-facing. This 100% Syrah is a blend of two of them. You get the more earthy Northern Rhône attributes; exotic scents of herb and cured meat—not bacon fat from the barrel but legitimate flavors from the terroir. In 2006 it’s tight, edgy and still youthful; this is an ageworthy Syrah that will expand and develop over the next 6–8 years. For the moment, it needs decanting to show its best. After breathing, as the wine opens, new layers of flavor emerge: soy, vanilla, raisin and buttered nuts.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Pure Syrah from the best blocks of the estate vineyard, this is dusty and detailed, with dark berry fruits, light herb, earth and cocoa. Balanced and long, it finishes with ripe and precisely etched tannins, putting a frame around the picture-perfect expression of Walla Walla Syrah.
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