Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog

Chavignol Sancerre Thomas-Labaille 2006 "Les Monts Damnés"

In October, we were lucky enough to have Patrick Hub visit us at Tablas Creek.  Patrick is the proprietor of Olympic Wine Merchant, the top wine shop in Olympia, Washington.  We spent much of the day in the cellar and in the vineyard, and generally got into the how and why of Tablas Creek more intensively than is possible anywhere outside of the winery.

A few weeks later, we received as a thank you a few bottles of a 2006 Chavignol Sancerre from Thomas-Labaille with the intriguing name "Les Monts Damnés" (literally translated as "the Damned Mountains").  I took it home a few days later and opened it with friends last weekend.

The wine was a revelation, really as good (for me, at least) as Sauvignon Blanc gets.  The rocks of the Sancerre region come through so clearly in the wine that you feel like you're there.  The citrus fruit is present but does not dominate the mineral character, and there isn't a trace of the weediness or herbaceousness you get with so many New World Sauvignon Blancs.  Overall, just a wonderful expression of why Sancerre remains the pinnacle for everyone who makes Sauvignon Blanc.

Even better (like most Loire whites) it's not a particularly expensive wine.  I did a Web search, and it's generally available in the low-$20 range.  If you can find one, you're in for a treat!

Varner Pinot Noir "Hidden Block" 2004, Santa Cruz Mountains

I've been wanting for a while to start a section where I can post about other wines that I've tasted that have made an impression on me.  The world doesn't need another wine reviewer, and I'm not in the business of assigning points or using lots of fancy wine jargon.  But, at the same time, I've wanted to be able to post on wines that I have found memorable, and (when appropriate) turn a few people on to them as well.

The first wine in this series is the Varner "Hidden Block" 2004 Pinot Noir from the Santa Cruz mountains.  It is easily one of the best Pinot Noirs I've ever had from California.  I was fortunate to stumble upon it; a friend from college who has been completing his pediatric residency at Stanford brought it down on a visit he made with his family earlier this spring.  We didn't open the wine while they were in town, and it wasn't until a couple of months ago that we opened it up.  It was a revelation: rich but focused, vibrant with fruit but not jammy, with nice acids and good structure holding it all together. 

I did a little research on it, and became even more impressed.  The brother team of Jim and Bob Varner work in many ways similarly to how we do at Tablas Creek: estate fruit, organic farming practices, native yeasts, minimal intervention in the winemaking, and a push, whenever possible, for producing wines that express the place in which they're grown.  I flat-out loved the wine, and consider myself very lucky to have gotten one of their last cases before they sold out.  If you want to learn more, you can read a little at www.varnerwine.com.