Every Sip Is A Pleasure
February 19th, 2018 | 
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There are some things in this world it seems like you can always count on. For instance, who can argue with the fact that the sun always rises in the east? (Even those purveyors of “alternative facts” can’t dispute this, can they?!) Another is what we were all taught in American grade schools, that literally anyone can grow up to be President of the United States. And one of the most obvious to us is this: you can always count on Tablas Creek Vineyard to make brilliant wines, right across the board.
Since I first met and tasted with Tablas Creek General Manager Jason Haas back in 2006, not only have we not had a bad wine from this Paso Robles producer of red and white Rhône varieties, pretty much everything we’ve tried from them is really, really good. Such is the case with the six latest samples we got our hands on recently, all of which carry on with the established pattern of very high quality fruit and winemaking. (Click on images to enlarge.)
2016 Tablas Creek Vineyard Patelin de Tablas Blanc Paso Robles, 52% Grenache Blanc, 24% Viognier, 12% Roussanne, 9% Marsanne, 3% Clairette Blanche, 13.0% Alc., $25.00: Showing clean, medium color, with typically characteristic lanolin, mineral and white peach flavors and aromas. Full bodied, with excellent acids and very good length, this is very much what we’ve come to expect from this bottling over the past several vintages. We’ve just recently finished the last bottle of our not-inconsiderable stash of ‘14s and ‘15s, so it’s high time for us to stock up on the current vintage. Drink now or hold for a few years. 3000 cases produced, incorporating fruit from nine top Rhone vineyards in Paso Robles, each selected for its quality. Find this wine
2016 Tablas Creek Vineyard Cotes de Tablas Blanc Adelaida District Paso Robles, 43% Viognier, 40% Grenache Blanc, 14% Marsanne, 3% Roussanne, 13.0% Alc., $30.00: Clean, medium color with a tinge of lemon, and a stingy nose at first; classic Cotes de Tablas Blanc flavors in the “house style” that we’ve come to know and love so well, rich, ripe and so damned tasty. All white peach all the time, with a delicious dose of citrus and undertones of minerality. Full bodied, but not at all heavy; balanced, zippy and good to go now, or in five years and beyond. An absolutely dee-lish white Rhône blend that will pair well with a wide variety of fish and bird. 1790 cases produced. Find this wine
2016 Tablas Creek Vineyard Grenache Blanc Adelaida District Paso Robles, 100% Grenache Blanc, 13.9% Alc., $30.00: Clean pale golden color; rich and intense in the mouth, offering peachy flavors and aromas accented with some lime, with a bit of mineral lurking. Full bodied, with balanced acids and good length, and more lime/citrus emerges with air. A really tasty white, with depth and substance, and like the Cotes de Tablas Blanc, it’s well-matched with a variety of seafood and fowl, and is sure to evolve and improve over the next five years and beyond. 700 cases produced. Find this wine
2015 Tablas Creek Vineyard Mourvedre Adelaida District Paso Robles, 100% Mourvedre, 13.7% Alc., $40.00: Lighter in color than one might expect, almost Pinot Noir-like; a pretty dark berry and cherry nose leads into rich, fairly ripe red and black plum, berry and cherry flavors with nice, earthy undertones. Full bodied, but not as weighty as these can sometimes be, and while it’s structured for several years of aging and development, it’s already gorgeous with a medium rare steak, spuds and broccoli. Every sip is a pleasure. 360 cases produced. Find this wine
And then, there are the two flagship bottlings…
2015 Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Tablas Blanc Adelaida District Paso Robles, 55% Roussanne, 28% Grenache Blanc, 17% Picpoul Blanc, 13.0% Alc., $45.00: Clean, rich color, almost golden; the rich, intense flavors have an earthy, almost tannic quality, very much in the white peach and mineral spectrum. Very good now with a plate of roasted turkey and gratin, but this will be even better in 3-5 years. It opens up with some air, so it might not be a bad idea to decant if you want some now. 2000 cases produced. Find this wine
2015 Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Tablas Adelaida District Paso Robles, 49% Mourvedre, 25% Grenache, 21% Syrah, 5% Counoise, 14.5% Alc., $55.00: Clean and dark in color, with a red and black fruit nose leading to plenty more of the same on the palate in the guise of moderately earthy red and black plum and berry with just the faintest note of oak. Full bodied, with ample structure for 10 years and more in the cellar and good length, it is less in the voluptuous house style than many TC wines display, but it’s seriously good stuff nevertheless. It does become richer and more tasty with air, so, again, decant if you want to drink some now. A solid, no-frills California red Rhône blend that, as always, is much to our liking. 2850 cases produced. Find this wine
Reporting from Day-twah,
Bastardo
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