L’Ecole No. 41

Since 1989 in the cellar

Marty Clubb keeps the cellar and the vineyard in the same frame as Winemaker at L’Ecole No. 41 in Lowden. Since 1989, Marty Clubb has held the post of Managing Winemaker and co-owner, a tenure built less on interruption than on return: harvest after harvest, blend after blend, the house still asking for the same long attention. His work here sits inside a wider Walla Walla discipline. Clubb served as First President of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance, and his roles as Managing Partner of Seven Hills Vineyard and SeVein vineyard development keep him tied to the land that feeds the bottle. He has also worked through the Washington Wine Institute, WineAmerica, and the Walla Walla Community College Center for Enology and Viticulture, where trade, policy, and training meet the practical demands of a growing region. At L’Ecole No. 41, that reach does not read as distance from the bench. It reads as context. The title still names daily responsibility: a managing winemaker who also owns the consequences of each season.

Walla Walla fruit, still wines, steady scale

The program at L’Ecole No. 41 stays with still red and still white wines from the Walla Walla Valley AVA, with Semillon, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Chardonnay among the varieties named by the house. The production philosophy is sustainable, and the scale is medium, with 45,000 cases annually. Those figures matter because they place the cellar between intimacy and breadth: large enough for continuity across releases, small enough that house style still depends on decisions made close to the work. Clubb’s vineyard roles sharpen that reading. They are not decorative affiliations; they keep vineyard planning, regional stewardship, and cellar judgment in conversation.

The old schoolhouse as tasting room

The room still carries the character of the 1915 Frenchtown Schoolhouse, renovated into the original tasting room and production facility. Original wood paneling, floors, the school bell, and period fixtures give the place a quiet register before a glass reaches the table. This is not a polished room trying to erase its first life. It keeps the proportions and memory of a rural schoolhouse, with the cellar and adjacent vineyards close enough to keep hospitality from floating away from production. Tastings here can be seated, and library tastings belong naturally in a house that has had one managing winemaker and co-owner in place since 1989. The mood is classic, rustic, and intimate, but the better word may be legible: wood, bell, floorboards, vineyard, bottle.

Continuity with a working address

Clubb’s 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award belongs to the same pattern as the schoolhouse and the cellar: duration, service, and practical memory in one place. The recognition names a career that has moved through winemaking, vineyard development, advocacy, and education without leaving the work behind. The room itself still has the old school bell that belongs to L’Ecole No. 41.