“These are both wonderful white wines, but for quite different reasons…”

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Tablas Creek Vineyard has been on my very short list of favorite California wineries for almost two decades. This storied collaboration between the Perrin family (Famille Perrin, Chateau de Beaucastel) and the Hass family (Robert Haas was the founder of the Perrin’s American importer, Vineyard Brands) has been at the forefront of the West Coast Rhone movement for even longer. Not only were all of their vines propagated from cuttings taken from Chateau Beaucastel, their nursery has also provided cuttings for many other California Rhone producers. Vineyard farming practices are heavily rooted in organic and Biodynamic principles, and just about everything else that goes on at Tablas Creek is intended to lighten their carbon footprint. There is so much to admire about this forward looking operation, but in the end, the wines are what Tablas Creek is all about, and the wines are very, very good.

The Esprit de Tablas line is Tablas Creek’s flagship range, and these two wines had been cellared comfortably for at least the last few years. That’s not a bad thing, because they are built to age, and could have easily spent more time evolving. Still, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to open them, and a visit from our old Gang of Pour accomplice Alan Kerr aka Canadian Zinfan last week provided the perfect excuse to pull those corks. We were hosted by our friends Shar Douglas and Ken Hebenstreit, who provided a nice Mediterranean-Lebanese spread to enjoy with the wines.

2016 Tablas Creek Vineyard Paso Robles Esprit de Tablas Blanc Adelaida District, 75% Roussanne, 18% Grenache Blanc, 7% Picpoul Blanc, 13% alc., $60.00: This may be the most opulent white I’ve ever had from any producer, anywhere. This is evident from the first glimpse of the golden hue, which my wife Kim, doing her best Russel Bevan, describes as the color of “the first pee of the morning,” and it really is! Pleasant, if not exactly generous on the nose, with whiffs of white fruit and lemon, but everything changes with the first sip. Rich, full-bodied and mouth coating, with abundant flavors of golden apple, white peach, honey and underlying minerality; the lavish texture belies ample acids that provide the wine’s strong backbone. Velvet smooth, this is a lovely white that’s drinking beautifully right now. A real “wow” kind of wine. Find this wine

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2017 Tablas Creek Vineyard Paso Robles Esprit de Tablas Blanc Adelaida District, 68% Roussanne, 17% Grenache Blanc, 7% Picpoul Blanc, 4% Picardan, 4% Clairette Blanche,13% alc., $55.00: Bright lemon-gold in color, this comes off initially as rather “normal” in comparison to the almost over-the-top opulence of the 2016 model. It’s not quite as deep as the previous selection, but very nice in its own right, full-bodied and well-built, with good length on the finish. Flavors of green and yellow apple and white peach are shaded with lanolin and mineral, making for a beautifully balanced wine with excellent intensity. Find this wine

These are both wonderful white wines, but for quite different reasons, so it’s all the more remarkable that they are derived from successive vintages. They once again give graphic testimony to just how good the wines of Tablas Creek are, and to how well the whites can age. These are still relatively young wines, when you consider that the tech sheets state that they can go for up to two decades. It would be fun (and instructive) to try them again in another five years and see where they’re at in their evolution.

Reporting from Day-twah,
Bastardo

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