[27-Nov-97]

Catch the Spirit of the Season

L'Ecole No. 41

Dear Friends of the Winery

The holiday season and crush seem to overlap and intertwine in a way
that one season seems to start before the other has ended.  Thus I am
writing our holiday mailer whilst in a vineyard waiting for the final
clusters to be picked.  We have much to be joyous about this season.
Early October rains and cold weather spin-offs from Pacific
hurricanes or El Nino dissolved into beautiful warm fall days and cool
nights -- perfect ripening weather for grapes.  With over 200 tons of
fruit processed so far, both our quantity and quality have surpassed
our greatest expectations.  The reds have extracted wonderful fruit
intensity and color, particularly from our vineyards in the Walla
Walla Valley.

It has been exciting to watch our new vineyard plantings progress at
Seven Hills.  In partnership with Norm McKibben and Leonetti Cellars,
we have planted 65 acres of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.
Next Spring we will add an additional 45 acres of Merlot and Cabernet
Sauvignon with just a few acres of Semillon for L'Ecole.  The vineyard
is being trained to a Smart-Dyson vertical trellis and using grow
tubes we ware alredy training the vines laterally on the cordon wires
this year.

In additon to our well entrenched open house in May during Walla
Walla's Balloon Stampede, we are colluding with other Walla Walla
Wineries to host our first annual Christmas Barrel Tasting December
6th and 7th.  In the cellar of the old schoolhouse we will have
several select red wines from the 1996 vintage available for tasting
direct from the barrel.  Along with our new fall-released wines
described below, we'll also offer limited quantities of our library
wines to visitors during our Christmas Barrel Tasting Weekend.

To make the weekend even more special, L'Ecole welcomes Chef Cristiana
Fagioli.  She will create special wine dinners on December 6th and
7th, and again on December 20th.  Cristiana has worked at Lampreia in
Seattle and at The Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie.  A menu is provided on
one of the enclosed inserts; reservations will be taken on a
first-come, first-serve basis.

This fall we relesed our 1996 "Barrel Fermented" Semillon and 1996
Washington Chardonnay.  The Semillon has really established itself in
the marketplace as a wine that Washington, and L'Ecole in particular,
do well.  Barrel fermented and sur lie aged six months, the Semillon
has a rich creamy mouthfeel with crisp apple, honey, nut and citrus
flavors.  The 1996 Chardonnay was 100% barrel fermented in tight
grained French oak, and show ripe candied-apple, pear butter, cinammon
and tropical fruit flavors balanced with a touch of oak.

This holiday season we are releasing four additional wines, The 1995
Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is 86% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14%
Merlot -- the significant of which comes from Portteus, Seven Hills
and Pepper Bridge vineyards.  The wine has an aroma of blackberry
spicy plum and cassis.  Its thick mouthfeel finishes with notes of
vanilla, violet and blackberry.  The 1995 Apogee is our third vintage
from Pepper Bridge Vineyard and is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon
and 35% Merlot.  It has an intense aromatic character with a bright
cranapple, bing cherry, and white pepper nose with hints of plum,
currant and mocha in the finish.  Third in our series of Walla Walla
vineyard designated wines, The 1995 Windrow Cabernet Sauvignon was
simply too good not to bottle on it's own.  This highly extracted
garnet wine has intense flavors of plum, cassis and spices in the
nose, with blackberry, German choclate, and hints of vanilla and sweet
tobacco on a long finish.

Finally, we are offering a special Semillon best described by Andrew
Jefford for the London Evening Standard during an August visit in
Washington: "The best white wine I've tasted in Washington was the '96
Semillon of L'Ecole No. 41, from the Fries vineyard on the Wahluke
Slope; rich, lush, full of apricot and mango fruit."  Eric Dunham,
L'Ecole No. 41's assistant winemaker, is trying his hand at his own.
The 1995 Dunham Cabernet Sauvignon garnered an impressive 89 recently
in The Wine Spectator.  It will be available on a limited basis at our
Christmas Barrel Tasting.

This summer we managed to acquire the domain name "lecole.com" on the
Internet, and we have been putting together our home page ever since.
There are some fun tidbits about the winery along with photos and
vineyard shots to peruse.  We have also provided fact sheets on each
of our wines which give additional information on the new releases in
addition to wines we have sold in the past two years.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!
Megan and Marty Clubb