Class Convenes with L'Ecole and Fish Café

By Kathy Ward

OK, scholars, it's back-to-school time. Are we ready to continue our studious enjoyment of wine? This month there's a little local history in the lesson as well.

Raise your hand if you know that French Canadians settled in Washington Territory in the 1850s to work for the Hudson's Bay Company near Walla Walla. Frenchtown, now Lowden, was their settlement. Some of these early immigrants, with a knack for grape culture, imported European stock with a fruitful optimism that vineyards would do well in the area. Over succeeding decades, grapes and wine contributed to the growing agricultural economy of this valley region.

Now skip ahead a few chapters to the 1980s, when Rick Small and Gary Figgins - along with Jean and Baker Ferguson - put Walla Walla on today's commercial wine map.

The Fergusons set up a winery in a 1915-era Lowden schoolhouse, appropriately named L'Ecole (French for "the school") No 41. The original wine label is a rendition of the vintage building drawn by an eight-year-old. Jean was the winemaker, Baker marketed the product. Daughter Megan eventually took over operation of the winery with her husband, Marty Clubb, as winemaker.

The September Enological Society program will feature L'Ecole wines that are currently getting some unique attention. For example, the Columbia Valley Merlot was featured as Wine of the Week on Wine Today.com, which is part of the Internet division of The New York Times newspaper. It got a four-star rating and was reviewed by editor and columnist Tim Fish who noted: "It's not often that you find a Merlot that's such a complete package. A beautiful one at that."

This Merlot also garnered a Silver award at the Society's Northwest Food & Wine Festival last month. Silvers went to The Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon and Barrel Fermented Semillon on the tasting card as well.

Marty will break away from winemaking chores to be guest speaker for the L'Ecole program. He'll lead us through a taste comparison of the Merlots and Cabernets from different vineyards and tell us about recent vineyard expansion (up from 22 acres to more than 130). Hope he also tells us about the computer-scheduled irrigation system controlled from a laptop in the manager's pickup truck. (It's a new school day, indeed!)

A visit to L'Ecole No 41 is a nostalgic trip for anyone who attended an old brick public elementary school, the kind with inkwell desks. Ask for a peek into the barrel cellar for a look at the mural drawn long ago for a children's Christmas pageant. In the authentic classroom tasting room you might even get an urge to write "I love Merlot!" on the original chalkboards.

Instead, scribble this across your notebook: "I will not miss the L'Ecole tasting program September 13." The meeting also will feature food selections from The Third Floor Fish Café in Kirkland, one of the most award-winning restaurants on the Eastside.

Chef Greg Campbell graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in history. (Bet he knew about the 19th century French Canadian migration into Walla Walla.) After attending the Culinary Institute of America in New York, he worked at Wolfgang Puck's Spago in Hollywood. Greg then opened Obachine restaurants in Hollywood and Seattle, and has been at the Fish Café for the past three years. Among Greg's masterful menu at the Fish Café are special five- and seven-course tasting dinners. It's a tossup as to whether the cuisine or the Lake Washington vista is more dazzling.

Come sample this menu along with the L'Ecole selections at the St. Demetrios Cultural Center in Seattle. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the program begins promptly at 7:30. Reservations are not necessary. The cost is $10 for members, $15 for guests.

New members who join the Enological Society for the first time the night of the program get a free wineglass. Others should bring their own glass - better yet, two for comparative tasting. Plastic cups are provided. Society logo glasses can be purchased at the meeting.