2014 Merlot Estate

Following a budbreak and bloom in 2016 that were even earlier than the previous year’s, the summer heat moderated dramatically, said Marty Clubb, with only one day hitting 100 degrees in Seven Hills between July 1 and the harvest. L’Ecole No. 41 finished picking right around the rainfall of October 9 (at that point, a couple weeks of rain stretched out the remainder of the harvest into November).

Clubb noted that he tightened his water management beginning in 2016 and thanks to the cool July that year he was able to cut his use of water by 50%, “so our yields in Seven Hills were lighter than average.” (At his Ferguson site, potential yields had already been reduced by wind and rain during the flowering.) The L’Ecole white wines from 2016 are distinctly fresh, as well as lower in alcohol than usual.

Incidentally, Clubb now seals his white wines with Nomacorc’s new carbon-neutral cork made from a plant-based biopolymer derived from Brazilian sugar cane.

Clubb is happy with his 2014 reds; he describes this vintage as his favorite of the recent hot years for red wine, noting that “2013 and 2015 were challenging for Merlot due to late heat during the harvest, but in 2014 we had better, cooler late-season weather. Still, the later-picked varieties performed best in 2014; they have solid phenolics and tannins.” Clubb has been carrying more crop in recent vintages and doing less leaf pulling in order to prevent sunburn. He also told me that he’s willing to water back his wines to control alcohol levels, but noted that this step should now be less necessary nowadays. The ‘14s are all around 14.5% alcohol.