We love dry rosé here at Gang Central, and we’ve stated on numerous occasions that we don’t consider them to be just warm weather wines; we drink them in June and we drink them in January. Still, with a recent outbreak of nice weather here in Day-twah, we took advantage of what seemed to be the perfect opportunity to chill down and try the two new 2014 Tablas Creek bottlings, and we really liked what we tasted. Tablas Creek doesn’t make bad wine, period. We’ve quite enjoyed the previous two vintages of these, and, if anything, these two new ones are even better than their predecessors. Here are my impressions. (Click images to enlarge.)

2014 Tablas Creek Vineyard Paso Robles Patelin de Tablas Rosé, 80% Grenache, 17% Mourvedre, 3% Counoise, 13.6% alc., $20.00: Very pale salmon pink, but more generous in flavor than color; the closest fruit comparison is obviously watermelon, with very subtle raspberry, strawberry, cherry and nice stoney underlying minerality. Stylistically more old world than new, which is fine with me. Medium-to-medium-full bodied, with ample acids and good length, this delivers pretty much everything I want from a fine dry rosé. Kim approves as well.
The Grenache was picked and direct-pressed into stainless steel tanks with minimum skin contact, and supplemented with saignée lots from Mourvèdre and Counoise. Fermented with native yeasts, then blended, cold-stabilized, and bottled in February of 2015.
33% Grenache and Tablas-clone Mourvèdre from Hollyhock (El Pomar)
28% Grenache from Cass (El Pomar)
20% Grenache from Colina d’Oro (Creston)
7% Tablas-clone Grenache from Starr Ranch (Adelaida Hills)
5% Tablas-clone Grenache and Counoise from Self Family Vineyard (Templeton Gap)
5% Grenache and Counoise from the Tablas Creek certified organic estate vineyard
2% Grenache from Paso de Record (Estrella)
1800 cases produced. Find this wine

2014 Tablas Creek Vineyard Paso Robles Dianthus, 46% Mourvedre, 41% Grenache, 13% Counoise, 14.3% alc., $27.00: Bright raspberry pink, almost red, and much more in the raspberry-strawberry spectrum than the Patelin, being richer and riper, though not quite as plump and intense as I remember the 2013 vintage being. There’s some nice underlying minerality here as well, and like the Patelin, it’s more than medium bodied, with balanced acids and good length. A nice contrast in styles here, though not as markedly so as the last two efforts. I like these both for what they are, delicious varieties of the rosé experience.
The grapes are from the oldest section of French-source vines at Tablas Creek, which ripen later than the rest of the vineyard. Mourvèdre, Grenache, and Counoise were harvested together and co-fermented on their skins in a single stainless steel fermenter. After 48 hours, about 800 gallons of juice were taken off the blend, and fermented dry away from the skins, then supplemented with saignées from other Mourvèdre and Grenache lots. 1600 cases produced. Find this wine

Reporting from Day-twah,
Bastardo

Related posts:

1. A Country Neighborhood Red from Tablas Creek
2. 2007 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Rouge
3. Three New Beauties from Tablas Creek
4. More Red Wings and Red Rhône Rangers From Tablas Creek
5. More New Wines from Tablas Creek Vineyard

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