Walla Walla, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2016 – For the second time in three years, L’Ecole N° 41 has earned an international trophy for its red Bordeaux blend, Estate Ferguson, at a prestigious global wine competition.
L’Ecole owner and managing winemaker, Marty Clubb, was in Sydney, Australia today to accept the Six Nations Wine Challenge’s International Trophy for ‘Best Red Bordeaux Blend’ awarded to the 2013 L’Ecole N° 41 Estate Ferguson, a single-vineyard red wine sourced from Ferguson Vineyard in the Walla Walla Valley. Six Nations Wine Challenge is a highly regarded annual competition held in Sydney showcasing the New World’s top wines. In 2014, Decanter World Wine Awards presented the 2011 Estate Ferguson with its distinguished International Trophy for Best Red Bordeaux Varietals over £15 at an awards ceremony in London.
Six hundred wines from the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and Canada were entered in the Six Nations competition by invitation only. Of those, only 15 wines earned a Best in Class trophy. Six of the most important voices in New World wine, one from each participating country, nominated their Top 100 wines for the competition. Jon Bonné, an influential and widely read American wine writer, represented the U.S. He was in Sydney to judge the competition in August, describing the red Bordeaux category as one of the “competition’s strongest.”
“This is a tremendous honor, not only for L’Ecole but also for Washington State and the Walla Walla Valley,” says Clubb. “We planted Ferguson Vineyard because we believed it to be a unique site capable of producing wines of distinct character but to have earned recognition from two esteemed panels of judges after only three vintages is beyond anything we imagined.”
The 2013 Estate Ferguson retails for $65. It is a blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 4% Malbec. Ferguson Vineyard is a high elevation, 42-acre site rooted in fractured basalt rock formed by ancient lava flows that blanketed the area 15-million years ago.
In addition to Ferguson, L’Ecole makes two other red Bordeaux blends, each from a unique Walla Walla Valley vineyard. Like Ferguson, Perigee from Seven Hills Vineyard and Apogee from Pepper Bridge Vineyard, are crafted to showcase the unique microclimate and geological profile of the site.
Founded in the Walla Walla Valley in 1983, L’Ecole N° 41 is one of Washington State’s first artisan family owned wineries. Housed in the historic Frenchtown schoolhouse depicted on the label, L’Ecole has earned international acclaim for producing expressive, distinctive wines reflective of the unmistakable typicity of Washington State and the unique terroir of the winery’s Walla Walla Valley estate vineyards.