Winemaker Notes
Blend: 71% Roussanne, 21% Grenache Blanc, 8% Picpoul Blanc
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
A mellow white Rhone with minerality, spice and soft acid structure; elegant, lush with floral notes; long seamless.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Probably the leanest example of this cuvee I've tasted, the 2013 Esprit de Tablas Blanc checks in as 71% Roussanne, 21% Grenache Blanc and 8% Picpoul that saw 10 months in mostly neutral foudre. It offers pretty, salty minerality in its leafy herbs, citrus and stone fruits to go with a medium-bodied, juicy, straightforward (by this cuvee's standards anyway) personality. This cuvee has a long track record of aging gracefully, but I'd lean toward drinking this over the coming 4-5 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
This blend of 71% Roussanne, 21% Grenache Blanc and 8% Picpoul Blanc offers cut Meyer lemon, tangerine and pink-grapefruit aromas on the nose, along with the promise of a creamy palate. Instead, the palate is quite tight and restrained, starting tart but opening toward lemon rinds and pear flesh, and wiping up clean on the finish.
Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.
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.