Tablas Creek Spring Tasting Party
Tasted April 3, 2011 by Redguy with 572 views
Introduction
Wines tasted at Tablas Creek Winery during their annual Spring Tasting Party marking the inauguration of their new tasting room. All wines were loosely paired with chef creation hors d'oeuvres. We tasted with and without these treats but my notes/scores reflect sans food. As always an excellent flight of wines with a couple of wines that surpassed my expectations.
Flight 1 (11 notes)
White
2009 Tablas Creek Grenache Blanc
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Bright lemon & floral notes with a rich mouthfeel and good acidity. Farily lively with a medium length finish. This would be a great food wine.
White
2007 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Tropical melons, lemons, minerals, with a touch of honey. Rich & round med mouthfeel with very good acidity. Very expansive and persistent with good vibrancy. A touch of spritz detracted some on entry. Stylistically this Esprit blanc is the closest to a Beaucastel CdP Blanc that I've tasted. Very nice but still requires some short term cellar patience.
Rosé
2010 Tablas Creek Rosé
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Oh my god! Beautiful bright electric light red. Sensational nose of watermellon, strawberries, and crushed rocks. More of the same on palate with fantastic acidity. Tablas always makes a great rose' but this is an utterly jaw droppingly good effort. Best Rose' I've had by a good margin. I may be underscoring this. Awesome!
Red
2008 Tablas Creek Grenache
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Lighter red than I expected. Bright, delicious fruit. A little thin and definately tight on the back end. Medium bodied. Delicious and very pretty. New world yet elegant.
Red
2008 Tablas Creek Syrah
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Ripe yet not too sweet. Black fruits are nicely balanced by good acidity and some earthy & underbrush notes adding complexity already. Nicely done. This has lots of potential.
Red
2009 Tablas Creek Côtes de Tablas
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Wow. I mean, WOW! This is the biggest and best Cotes rouge I've tasted from them. Medium+ mouthfeel is loaded with dark fruits & graphite, very good acidity, and framed by fantastic tannins that add interest and help deliver a long caramel laced finish. Mouthcoating with the ability to age. Great tannins like this in a cotes rouge, are you kidding me?
Red
2008 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Dark ruby and quite expressive like the '08 Panoplie. Medium+ body. Earthy dark fruits intertwined with some red fruits and underbrush. There was a certain "wildness" to the fruit that was very appealing. Showing early complexity. Excellent!
Red
2006 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Dark ruby. A touch of sweetness on entry. Earthy dark fruits, soy sauce, with a little mushroom thing going on. Rich and very smooth with well integrated tannins, this is excellent but a little too under control right now for a mourvedre based wine and lacks a little sex appeal. Excellent and better than the bottle I had at home a week ago.
Red
2008 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Panoplie
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Dark red. Very aromatic. Red and black fruits, black licorice, underbrush. Great acidity with a medium+ mouthfeel. Seamless. Long persistent finish. Not as rich as last years but captivating and showing early complexity. This is really delicious now with room for growth.
Closing
All in all this was a great line up of wines. The utterly stupendous rose' is a bit pricey at $21.60 but worth it. The same can be said for the cote rouge and Patelin which are great values. Not surprisingly the Panoplie was fantastic and the well balanced syrah is a sure thing for lovers of old world wines. In my opinion, the '08 Esprit rouge outperformed the '06 version, which was a bit of a surprise. The new tasting room is pretty cool with interior views of the barrels and foudres.
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