Winemaker Notes
A gorgeous nose of passion fruit and green pear, honeysuckle and chalky minerals. The mouth is lifted and lovely, with flavors of baked pear and satsuma, white flowers and sea spray. The wine’s texture shines on the long finish, with lively acids framing apricot fruit. An ideal balance of substance and charm.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A fresh and refreshing, textural medium-bodied blend of white Rhone varietals. The pillowy texture floats on your palate accompanied by cleansing acidity and chalky minerality. Delicious now but will age elegantly. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted as a sample from foudre well before its bottling in December, the 2024 Esprit de Tablas Blanc contains nearly all of the estate's Picpoul and Bourboulenc due to the season's low white wine yields. It exudes all the classic qualities readers will rightfully expect from this blend, opening with a fragrant nose of apricot, orange blossoms, spice and wet stones energized by lifted, citrus-driven accents. The palate is broad and gourmand yet retains exceptional poise and clarity, culminating in a long, round and elegantly luscious finish infused with tenacity and energy.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Vinous
The 2024 Esprit de Tablas Blanc is zesty and deeply spiced, with a burst of ginger and lime zest complicating mint-laced green apples and hints of sour melon. It is deeply textural, silken and pliant, with saline minerality to balance, as a decadent wave of ripe pit fruits swirls beneath an air of sweet inner herbal tones. It finishes lightly structured and long, leaving a honeyed floral resonance and a tinge of sour lemon to linger. The 2024 is already a glorious example of Esprit de Tablas Blanc, yet it has the balance to age effortlessly.
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Wine Enthusiast
Lemon blossom and lightly hued honey aromas decorate the nose of this always fascinating blend of 40% Roussanne, 26% Grenache Blanc, 17% Picpoul Blanc, 11% Bourboulenc, 3% Picardan and 3% Clairette Blanche. The palate is hefty in weight though fresh in flavor, offering layers of round stonefruit set against a rocky minerality.
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Wine Spectator
This is fragrant, with citrus blossom and chamomile notes framing a fresh and juicy core of pineapple, mirabelle plum and Eureka lemon that lingers pleasantly around spice details on the refreshing finish. Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Picpoul Blanc, Bourboulenc, Clairette Blanche and Picardan.
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.
