Tablas Creek Esprit de Tablas Rouge 2013
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Blend: 40% Mourvedre, 28% Syrah, 22% Grenache, 10% Counoise.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Smooth and juicy with notes of earth, spice and dense fruit; intense and balanced.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dried red cherries, dark strawberry, mulberry, light baking spice and freshly cracked pepper show on the nose of this balanced bottling of 40% Mourvèdre, 28% Syrah, 22% Grenache and 10% Counoise. The sip starts with a dusty character, and then lovely flavors of light purple fruit, lavender powder and intriguing florality ensue. It drinks great now, but will age marvelously. Enjoy from 2018–2033.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
40% Mourvèdre; 28% Syrah; 22% Grenache; 10% Counoise. This year’s version of Tablas Creek’s flagship bottling is a serious wine of careful construction and great depth. It is both weighty and rich with layer upon layer of optimally ripened strawberries, raspberries and sympathetic sweet oak, and, while still on the youthfully tight side of things, it exhibits meticulous polish and extraordinary length. It is a wine of great potential that recalls the Southern Rhône’s best, and, however impressive it may be at the moment, it is simply too young for prime time and begs for a half-dozen years of age.
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Tablas Creek is a pioneer of California’s Rhone movement. Founded in 1989, it is the culmination of a friendship between two of the international wine community’s leading families dating back to 1967: the Perrin family of Chateau de Beaucastel and the Haas family of Vineyard Brands. After a four-year search, the partners chose Paso Robles, California for its many similarities to the Southern Rhone and began the lengthy process of importing vine cuttings, building a grapevine nursery, and creating an estate vineyard from the ground up. Today, the vineyards at Tablas Creek are proudly Biodynamic® and organic certified by Demeter USA.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
Paso Robles has made a name for itself as a source of supple, powerful, fruit-driven Central Coast wines. But with eleven smaller sub-AVAs, there is actually quite a bit of diversity to be found in this inland portion of California’s Central Coast.
Just east over the Santa Lucia Mountains from the chilly Pacific Ocean, lie the coolest in the region: Adelaida, Templeton Gap and (Paso Robles) Willow Creek Districts, as well as York Mountain AVA and Santa Margarita Ranch. These all experience more ocean fog, wind and precipitation compared to the rest of the Paso sub-appellations. The San Miguel, (Paso Robles) Estrella, (Paso Robles) Geneso, (Paso Robles) Highlands, El Pomar and Creston Districts, along with San Juan Creek, are the hotter, more western appellations of the greater Paso Robles AVA.
This is mostly red wine country, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel standing out as the star performers. Other popular varieties include Merlot, Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Grenache and Rhône blends, both red and white. There is a fairly uniform tendency here towards wines that are unapologetically bold and opulently fruit-driven, albeit with a surprising amount of acidity thanks to the region’s chilly nighttime temperatures.