A Luxurious Supper for a Cold Winter's Day: Roasted Duck Legs and Tannat

By Suphada Rom

Grocery shopping while hungry is not for the faint of heart. I often end up with way more food than I could ever think of eating in the course of a week, while indulging in instant gratification snacks for the car ride home. So, whenever I feel a hunger impulse, I try to steer clear of the tempting snacks and head straight for the meat and seafood section. Better yet, I'll visit my local butcher. You can't eat those tempting cuts of uncooked meat, taunting you from behind the glass. You have to muster up patience and focus on creating a menu. This time, I was drawn to the fresh cuts of duck offered at the counter. Duck is a real treat. I don't cook it often. Duck tends to be on the upper end of the spending spectrum and I don't know about you, but if I'm spending more on a cut of meat, I like to know exactly what I'm going to do with it. Not a problem today; when I saw the duck at the butcher's shop, the lightbulb effect was in full force and I knew that I wanted roasted duck legs.

Roasted Duck Leg and Butter Poached Potatoes with our 2014 Tannat

I love duck's rich dark flavors and almost butter-like consistency. When done right, it melts. in. your. mouth. My recipe choice: Roast Duck Legs with Red Wine Sauce from BBC Food. This recipe is a nice balance of flavor reward for time invested.  Seasoned simply with Chinese Five Spice (I've used this before on an oven roasted chicken- it's extremely versatile!) and roasted in the oven for just over an hour, makes for an incredible dinner or indulgent lunch. Also, I chose to use quince paste (made from Tablas Creek quince- stay tuned for a blog piece on quince paste production and a wine and cheese pairing!) in the sauce. Here are the results from today's efforts:

The duck legs, seasoned and ready to go in the oven. The bed of rosemary and garlic not only flavors the meat but also separates the gradual pool of duck fat that will accumulate at the bottom of the pan 

Butter poached fingerling potatoes; trust me when I say they look more indulgent than they are! I love that each potato keeps its form right up until you bite into it

The smell of roasting meat and herbs wafted through the office, effectively luring hungry individuals into the warmth of the kitchen. After a quick photo op, it was finally time to dig in. Cutting into the crispy skin, your knife meets rich and creamy textured meat. The aromatics from the rosemary and garlic that the duck was roasting on permeated through the meat and flavored everything wonderfully. Roasting the duck concentrates the flavor and give it this succulent texture. And the potatoes- oh man, these were light and pillowy. I love whipped potatoes, but sometimes even whipped potatoes can have a denseness and gummy texture that I wasn't looking for with this dish. I pulled the butter poaching technique from a dish we served at the restaurant I worked at. They're almost like a mashed potato on command- they stay in their whole form until you take a bite, when they reveal the creamy and buttery texture of a luscious whipped potato. 

Pairing this with the 2014 Tannat was a natural. I had tasted it earlier this week and in my mind, pairing it with the duck just clicked. On the nose, there are rich aromas of tobacco and juniper. I also got a whiff of black tea, sweet smoke, and citrus, steering more towards orange peel. Even in its youth, Tannat has a loamy and meaty quality that suggests the strong flavors of game. On the palate, Tannat's tannins are concealed nicely, making the wine approachable in it's youth, which isn't always this case for the notoriously powerful Tannat grape. I was absolutely thrilled with how well the wine complimented the dish. Duck is just so texturally rich that the tannins (silky as they were) in the wine provided a wonderful counterpoint. The sauce was lightly scented with the rosemary infused duck fat that collected at the bottom of the pan, playing up the savory tones of the wine. We were all quite pleased with this pairing, in fact, the only thing I was partly disappointed with was the quantity- I only wish I had made more (mostly to fulfill dream of shredded duck tacos for lunch the next day). Oh well, there's always next time!

If you recreate this dish (or create a TCV wine and food pairing of your own!), be sure to let us know on any of our social media handles - Facebook or Twitter or Instagram - or just leave us a comment here! When you do, tag @tablascreek and use #EatDrinkTablas

A few resources:

• The recipe for Roasted Duck Legs can be found here.
• Our 2014 Tannat is available through purchase at our tasting room or on our online shop.
• Not a member yet? Our 2014 Tannat will be part of our 2017 Spring VINsider shipment, set to ship out mid-March. Find out more information here.

Winter Vineyard Photo Essay: After the Rain

It has been a remarkable January here at Tablas Creek. By the time the last storm in our most recent sequence passed through early Monday morning, we'd accumulated 4.01" of rain in 24 hours, 18.79" for January, and 25.5" for the winter rainy season so far. The blog I posted Sunday has more detail on what this record-setting rainfall means to us, but big  picture, it's all terrific.  At this time of year, the more rain, the better, almost without exception.

Now, with three days of sun (and two quite frosty nights) behind us, it's finally firm enough to get out into the vineyard without sacrificing your footwear.  And we've been taking advantage of this footing by getting out to show off the vineyard's green winter coat.  I thought I'd share a few of our favorite shots.  As always, click on the photo to see it larger.  

First, one that Lauren caught of the frost on one of our cover crop flowers. Our mornings have been quite chilly, down in the upper 20s with plenty of moisture to settle (and freeze) overnight:

While we're on the subject of wildflowers, I found the first California poppy of the year growing behind the winery:

The vineyard itself is vibrantly green, with the contours emphasized by the bare branches.  We'll be starting to prune in the next few weeks, but as for now everything is still in its raw state. Note too the section in the background (formerly a mixed section of struggling Syrah, Mourvedre, and Roussanne) that we've pulled out and will be letting lay fallow for a year:

What's growing is a mix of the cover crop that we seed each year (a mix of sweet peas, oats, vetch, and clovers) and the native plants that seed themselves.  One of these that I'm always happy to see is miner's lettuce, an edible water-loving perennial that tastes like a cross between watercress and baby spinach:

The animals are doing a great job of keeping the cover crop growth reasonable.  Nathan has already gotten the animals through nearly the entire vineyard once, on his way to two full passes before budbreak.  His goal is to keep them in any given area only for a day or two, and then move them before they start to damage the cover crop's roots, so it will continue growing.  They dot the hillsides like white clouds on a green background:

The sheep, alpacas, and donkeys aren't the only animals we're finding homes for.  I like that this shot of one of our owl boxes is framed between two of the different oak species that give Paso Robles its name (a coastal live oak on the right and a deciduous black oak on the left):

Outside the vineyard, the rain has left the forest feeling washed clean. I love this photo of the lichen hanging off the trees, still sparkling from the last cloudburst:

Finally, lest you think that all the water has disappeared underground, one photo of what is normally just a grassy valley.  Water is seeping out of the vineyard at all its low points, heading down toward a suddenly rushing Las Tablas Creek:

With all the water in the ground, and a week of sun forecast, it's only going to get greener here, and the wildflower season this year should be spectacular. If you've only seen Paso Robles in its summer gold, it's something to be sure to experience. 

January 2017 is Tablas Creek's wettest month ever

Sometime around 6:30 this morning, as the third of three powerful storms pushed through the Paso Robles area, our rain gauge for January passed 16.32" for the month and displaced February 1998 as the wettest single month in Tablas Creek's history.  Our running total (with much of this storm still to pass, and 9 days left in January) is now 17.17", more than triple the normal average for January, our wettest month:

For the year, we're at 23.88", just about at our 20-year average for the winter rainy season and about more than 90% of the way toward the 26" that old-timers quote as the long-term annual "normal" for our pocket of the Paso Robles Adelaida District. You can see, looking at the last 20 years, that we're still quite a ways from matching our wettest-ever rainy season, 2004-05:

Of course, we're still only just past the midpoint of the normal winter rainy season. It seems like we'll get another inch or so in the aftermath of this storm, and February-June brings another 11.47" of rain on average.  That would put us up above 35" of rain, on par with the last two wet winters, 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Even with the recent rain, we've got a long way to go to climb out of the hole the last five years of drought has put us in. Between the winters of 2011/12 and 2015/16, we built up a deficit of more than 54" (compared to that 26" average).  So, it will take more than one wet winter to recover.  But between the reports of greatly increased capacity in our local reservoirs and the news that most of Northern California has been declared free of drought it's clear that the rain has made a measurable difference.

As for the vineyard, it's wet. Springs have sprouted in low-lying areas, and enough water has drained to cause Las Tablas Creek to flow during more than the immediate aftermath of a storm for the first time in four years.  You venture into the vineyard at peril of losing your footwear.

After this low pressure system passes through on Tuesday, we're forecast for a week or so of dry weather.  That's perfect.  It will allow the surface water to drain down into the limestone clay layers, and give the cover crop a week of sun.  And then the long-term forecast suggests a return to a wet pattern in early February.  That's perfect too.  At this point, we're feeling good about where we are.  Anything more at this point is gravy.

A Horizontal Retrospective: 2007 at Age Ten

In 2014 we began the tradition of looking back each year at the vintage from ten years before.  Part of this is simple interest in seeing how a wide range of our wines -- many of which we don't taste regularly -- have evolved, but we also have a specific purpose: choosing ten or so of the most compelling and interesting wines from this vintage to show at the public retrospective tasting we hold each year (this year's is February 11th).  Ten years is enough time that the wines have become something different and started to pick up some secondary and tertiary flavors, but not so long that most wines are at the end of their drink windows.  And, in fact, most of the 2007 reds are just entering their mature peak. 

Five years ago, as part of a look back at each of our vintages for our then-new Web site, I wrote this about the 2007 vintage:

2007 was a blockbuster vintage in Paso Robles. Yields were very low (down between 15% and 30% from 2006, depending on variety) due to a cold and very dry winter, which produced small berries and small clusters. A moderate summer without any significant heat spikes followed, allowing gradual ripening, and producing white wines with deep color and powerful flavors, and red wines with tremendous intensity, excellent freshness and a lushness to the fruit which cloaks tannins that should allow the wines to age as long as any we've made.

I was interested in the extent to which we'd still see what we'd noted when the vintage was younger.  Would the wines (red and white) show the balance of power and lift that made it one of the most exciting young vintages we'd experienced? How would the (at times massive) concentration have affected the balance over time?  And were there any lessons we might take for the wines we're making now?  Joining me for the tasting was our cellar team (Neil, Chelsea, Craig and Brad) as well as Darren, our National Sales Manager.

In 2007, we made 17 different wines: 6 whites, 1 rosé, 9 reds, and 1 sweet wine.  But we actually tasted 18 wines, because as part of our ongoing experimentation between corks and screwcaps, we bottled our 2007 Cotes de Tablas under both closures, to track how each closure impacted the wine's development over time. Still, 18 wines was actually fewer than we'd tasted from the previous couple of vintages.  The short crop meant that some wines we'd made in previous years (like Viognier, Picpoul, Bergeron and Counoise) weren't practical, although we did add two new wines: our first-ever Pinot Noir and En Gobelet bottlings.  The lineup:

My notes on the wines are below. Wines with SC noted were bottled under screwcap, while those with a C were finished under cork. Most wines are also linked to their technical information on our Web site, if you'd like to see a breakdown of the winemaking or our tasting notes at bottling.  For some reason we never made Web pages for the Vermentino, Grenache Blanc, or Pinot Noir (perhaps because there was none left to sell after sending them out to our wine club?) but if you have questions about those, please leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer:

• 2007 Vermentino (SC): Still bright and clear in the glass. On the nose, very reminiscent of an Australian riesling with some age on it: citrus pith and petrol. Clean on the palate, with a nice grapefruit/lemon curd citrus note and noteworthy richness for Vermentino. This wasn't a wine I particularly loved when it was young (I didn't feel that the 2007 vintage's density particularly played to the bright freshness I admire in Vermentino) but this was a very good showing.
• 2007 Grenache Blanc (SC): A clean but fairly neutral nose, with a little green apple skin and a touch of sake-like alcohol showing through. The mouth showed round and very nice: apple and anise and baked pear and a mouth-coating texture.  Clean, fresh, and chalky on the finish.  Pretty impressive, I thought, for a variety that is not supposed to age well.
• 2007 Cotes de Tablas Blanc (SC; 38% Viognier, 25% Marsanne, 20% Roussanne, 17% Grenache Blanc): A little darker than the first two wines in the glass, perhaps from the unusually high percentage of Roussanne in this vintage. A rich nose of creamy mineral, caramel, watermelon rind and some fresh herbs (tarragon?) on the nose. The mouth was soft and round, with a creme brulee richness, nice acids, and flavors of honey and roasted hazelnuts on the finish.  A great expression of an aged white Rhone.
• 2007 Antithesis Chardonnay (C): The nose predicts a sweet wine: butter and roasted nuts and caramel corn and honey.  Like Cracker Jacks turned liquid. The mouth is dry by contrast, with flavors of honeycomb and pine resin. The finish is rich, with some nice aged Chardonnay character.  This isn't going to go much longer; drink up.
• 2007 Roussanne (C): I usually love our Roussanne at age 10, but I wasn't quite sure what to make of this. The nose is a touch medicinal (acetate?) with a hint of dried white flowers and a minty, honey note coming out with air. The mouth is more classic, but without the age-driven richness I was expecting: some fresh pear, baking spices and a graham cracker note.  I tend to think this wine is in a stage it will come out of, but I'm not sure.
• 2007 Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc (C; 68% Roussanne, 22% Grenache Blanc, 10% Picpoul Blanc): From a vintage where we maxed out our Picpoul percentage in the Esprit, to give balance to the weight coming from the Roussanne and Grenache Blanc. The nose is deep and spicy: honey graham crackers given lift by a minty tarragon note and a refreshing minerality that Chelsea called "ocean air and citrus blossoms". The mouth is rich, with nice acids framing that richness, and flavors of baked lemon, nutmeg and Bartlett pear.  The long, vibrant finish showed mineral notes and sea salt caramel flavors. The wine is showing its age in a really nice way, and I think will drink well for another decade.
• 2007 Rosé (SC; 57% Mourvedre, 31% Grenache, 12% Counoise): A deep copper amber color. The nose is like an aged light red, almost bloody, like drippings from a roast, with some strawberry compote behind. The mouth shows candied orange peel, rose petal, and dried strawberry, and finishes dry.  I remember this as the apex of richness in our rosé; starting in 2008 we pulled back on the skin contact and focused on making rosés with more freshness and bright fruit. While this was interesting to taste, I like the direction we've been heading.
• 2007 Pinot Noir (C): Fun to taste our first-ever Pinot, made from a handful of rows in our nursery block. A wildly expressive (if not particularly Pinot) nose: menthol and dried herbs and cherry cola. The mouth is darker: black cherry and sweet oak and black tea and eucalyptus. Substantial tannins still. In many ways, more like an elegant Shiraz than a Burgundian Pinot Noir.
• 2007 Cotes de Tablas (SC; 50% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 25% Counoise): Under screwcap, the initial impression is of a bright red-fruit driven nose, with deeper anise, chocolate, black cherry and spice notes coming out with air. On the palate, bright, luscious plum fruit, with black pepper and still some substantial tannins. Garrigue complicates the spicy fruit on the finish.  Beautiful.
• 2007 Cotes de Tablas (C; 50% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 25% Counoise): Under cork, quite a different nose: much more animal: meaty and spicy like a roast with a rosemary rub. The mouth was more similar to the screwcap version, with minty red raspberry and red plum fruit and youthful tannins. This really benefited from air; we definitely recommend a decant if you're drinking this soon.
• 2007 Grenache (C): An inviting nose of cola, milk chocolate, campfire, red fruit, and spice.   The mouth is loaded with sweet fruit: like a milk chocolate covered cherry. There's a luxurious texture, brought under control by some still-substantial tannins.  The alcohol (the wine is 15.3%) shows a bit on the finish.  The wine showed quite young, and we thought that (in contrast to the fully mature 2006) this wine might still be on its way up.
• 2007 Mourvedre (C): A nose of leather, roasted meat drippings, and chocolate.  The mouth is pretty spectacular: milk chocolate, plums, and currants, made savory with tobacco leaf spice. The texture is plush and appealing, with tannins with a powdered sugar character that we often find in great vintages.  There's a little spicy, herby lift on the finish. Neil said "bring on a leg of lamb" and we all agreed.  Delicious.
• 2007 Syrah (C): Quite a different nose than the previous red wines: an iron-like minerality, with aromas of duck fat, pine nut, dark chocolate and Worcestershire giving a savory depth. On the palate, more dark chocolate, blackberry, with a creamy texture and lots of beautiful structure. There's a little nicely integrated oak on the long finish. Easily my favorite of our older Syrahs I've tasted, and (unlike the 2004, 2005 or 2006) ready to drink at age 10.
• 2007 Tannat (C): A very dark black-red color. The nose is spice and juniper and coffee grounds and black cherry. The mouth is nicely lifted, brighter than the nose suggested, with sweet wild strawberry and blackberry fruit, before big, dark tannins reassert control. There's a cool florality on the finish, like candied violets.  A really fun interplay between brighter and deeper elements, and still a long life ahead.
• 2007 En Gobelet (C; 48% Mourvedre, 47% Grenache, 5% Tannat): Our first-ever En Gobelet, which we made because when we were doing our component tastings that year, we noted that the head-trained, dry-farmed blocks seemed to share a mineral-driven elegance that the trellised, irrigated blocks didn't. At this tasting, we found a gentle, inviting nose compared to the Tannat: garrigue, lamb juices, raspberry and spice. The mouth shows sweet milk chocolate, playing off tangy cherry and ripe plum. There's a nice salty note on the finish that showed why we came up with this wine in the first place..
• 2007 Esprit de Beaucastel (C; 44% Mourvedre, 29% Grenache, 21% Syrah, 6% Counoise): A really beautiful mix of sweet and savory on the nose: roasted meat, currant, black pepper and eucalyptus. The mouth is luscious, with a great balance between sweet red fruit and savory meaty soy marinade character. The wine has been in a closed phase for the last three years, but only on the finish do I still see hints of this, with a little heightening of the tannins.  This is well on its way out of that closed phase, and will be even better in 6 months.  For now, decant it if you're opening one, but prepare to be richly rewarded.
• 2007 Panoplie (C; 60% Mourvedre, 30% Grenache, 10% Syrah): Deeper and even more savory on the nose than the Esprit, with an umami rich density and lots of spicy wild herbs. The palate is spectacular: deep and rich, plum skin and dark chocolate and candied orange peel, with elegant tannins on the exceptionally long finish.  Fitting that this is the highest-scoring wine we've ever made; it's impressive, from beginning to end.
• 2007 Vin de Paille Sacrérouge (C; 100% Mourvedre): A more port-like nose than is often the case with our Sacrérouge, perhaps because of the unusually high 15.4% alcohol: dried cranberries, dark chocolate, fruitcake and a little juniper lift. The mouth is sweet, rich, and showing younger than the nose: chocolate-covered raisins, with a nice bit of tangy acidity giving relief to the sweetness.

A few concluding thoughts

There was definitely a signature to the 2007 vintage: powerful fruit balanced by substantial structure and lifted by savory meaty and spice notes.  This thread carried through all the wines, but was particularly noticeable in the reds.  As we thought at the time, it's a better red vintage than white vintage, with only two whites making the 10-wine cut for the public tasting on February 11th. But those reds have really rewarded the decade in the cellar, and they'll all go out several more years without a problem.

Neil commented at one point in the tasting that "most of these wines could use half an hour in a decanter" and I very much agreed.  Both reds and whites -- and in the case of the Cotes de Tablas, both cork-finished and screwcap-finished versions -- became more expressive with time in the glass.  That's partly a function of the power of the 2007's, but generally a good idea for helping any wine that's been trapped in a bottle for a decade open up and express itself.

I was quite excited to see that the 2007 Esprit de Beaucastel seems finally to be emerging from its closed phase.  As is often the case, the biggest wines take the longest time to get through the closed phase, but they reward those with the patience to wait by drinking well for longer once they've emerged too.  It seems like we'll finally be able to offer the wine to members of our VINsider Wine Club Collector's Edition this fall.  I can't wait.

Finally, we chose ten pretty exciting wines for what should be a great February 11th Horizontal Tasting: Cotes Blanc, Esprit Blanc, Cotes de Tablas (screwcap), Grenache, Mourvedre, Syrah, En Gobelet, Esprit, Panoplie, and Vin de Paille "Sacrérouge". If you haven't signed up yet but are interested, please let us know soon; we have about a dozen spots left.

A gentle exit from holiday excess: chicken braised with olives & lemon, paired with Grenache Blanc

By Suphada Rom

In the course of a month and a half, I've managed to fly to New York City and back, drive up to San Francisco, drive down to Los Angeles, and fly back out for an East Coast Christmas. These moments where I see friends and familiar faces are always incredibly rewarding. Most of the time, we haven't seen in each other in months and in turn we feast like we haven't eaten in years. I know you can relate- "just one more bite!" or "well what the heck- we never see each other, let's just have that extra bottle of wine". We kid ourselves slightly by getting more specific with the, "well, I haven't had that particular vintage yet" or "I had a creme brûlée, but you know, it wasn't as good as I know they'll make it here." Clearly, the time has come to ease into a transition from rich holiday fare to dishes that refresh and rejuvenate your palate. Right now, I'm craving simple, satisfying dishes with minimal preparation and a "set it and forget it" technique because with all that time on the road, I've got a lot of work to catch up on.

On one of my flights to the East Coast, I was reading The Raw and the Uncooked; Adventures of a Roaming Gourmand by Jim Harrison. One episode he mentioned (several decades ago) was the exportation of thousands upon thousands of pounds of chicken thighs, simply because at the time the restaurants and people of America wanted just the white, tender breast meat.  Of course, my mind instantly darted to dozens of recipes I have on hand that specifically use flavorful chicken thighs, or better yet, the whole bird. David Tanis has a fantastic recipe that I've used before and have always loved. But I was looking for something new. So, I scanned through one of the many cookbooks I received for Christmas -- I seem to receive several each year -- and found a great, nourishing recipe from It's All Good, co-written by Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Turshen: simply braised chicken with olives and lemon. This recipe is classic and clean eating at its most flavorful. 

Braised Chicken with Lemon and Olives paired with 2015 Grenache Blanc

It was so good that I made it twice.  Note the second attempt (below) I showed a bit more patience when browning the skin. In case you were wondering, the 2014 vintage of Grenache Blanc paired and drank wonderfully, too!

Lemony and tangy, this dish jumpstarts your  palate from any post-holiday daze it may be in. It's vibrant and fresh, and a surefire cure for the winter blues. And I don't know about you, but olives and lemons are household staple (I'll let you do the math on that one...). Assembly and preparation are a cinch. Per the usual, I recommend a good and patient browning of the skin. I wasn't overly patient the first go around (I was starving, can you blame me?!) and I flipped it a little too soon. It still tasted wonderful, but I wished I had gained a little bit more of that deeper roasted chicken flavor. Staying with the plan of keeping things simple but tasty, I opted for a smooth and savory white bean puree to go with it, but any starchy side will do. If you've got potatoes in your pantry, whip them up into a nice puree for the chicken to perch upon. 

Our 2015 Grenache Blanc is enticing. I take a whiff and I'm instantly enveloped in this sweet and citrusy aroma, reminiscent of candied apples and Meyer lemon peel. Don't let the nose fool you, because this wine is fermented dry, meaning there's no residual sugar to be found. On the palate, it's a dream. Rich with a coating texture -- a Grenache Blanc signature -- the weight is cut by precise acidity, making your mouth water from all angles. On the palate, there are characteristic notes of green apple and tart pears. The finish on this wine is long and graceful, with some nice citrus and spice providing depth and complexity. Sometimes you want a wine that's going to provide contrast with your food.  Sometimes you want a wine that's going to echo a dish's elements. This was definitely the latter: the wine and the dish both had richness and freshness, creamy texture and citrus notes. As you can see, I was excited enough to make it twice. The pairing was, in the words of our National Sales Manager Darren Delmore, "spot on". 

If you recreate this dish (or create a TCV wine and food pairing of your own!), be sure to let us know on any of our social media handles - Facebook or Twitter or Instagram - or just leave us a comment here! When you do, tag @tablascreek and use #EatDrinkTablas

A few resources:

• The recipe for Braised Chicken with Green Olives and Lemon can be found in the It's All Good Cookbook; it was also recently featured on ABC's The Chew.
• Our 2015 Grenache Blanc is featured as one of six wines on our tasting room flight. Come visit us at the winery for a taste!
• Not local? It's also available online! 

Creating an Experience Worthy of Being Called the "Collector's Tasting"

[Editor's Note, April 2019: We have changed the selection of wines in this tasting somewhat, and are now featuring a 6-vintage vertical tasting of our flagship Esprit de Tablas, spanning the 2010-2016 vintages. It is a wonderful way to go in depth with our top red wine, to understand how the wines we make age, and to explore how the signature of the vintage is expressed each year. If this is your first visit to Tablas Creek, and you would like to experience the breadth of what we make, we suggest that you consider a seated flight tasting instead, and follow up with a Collector's Tasting on a subsequent visit. But whether this is your first visit or you have been coming for decades, we look forward to welcoming you.]

By Lauren Phelps

It is a very rare treat to pour an aged, library wine for guests in our tasting room.  Wines that have been carefully cellar aged have a rich and complex quality that many California wine drinkers have yet to discover.  After a few years of bottle aging our Esprit de Tablas wines are impossibly complex, with layers of complementary flavors ranging from dark cherry and plum to leather and spice.  I have exhausted myself and our guests attempting to explain with words and gestures the benefits of bottle aging,  imploring my audience to "forget about our wine at the back of your closet" or "write a special occasion on the bottle" and keep it aging for at least five years, upwards of thirty in the right conditions.  As you might imagine, my passionate attempts at persuasion are mostly met with doubtful gazes and guilty confessions about their lack of will control.  

Our traditional tasting list guides guests through our new releases, which for many wines mostly conveys the wines' potential.  It's easy to judge these fresh, young wines as they are, without a perspective as to their long and developing lifespan.  It's like writing the biography of a teenager.  I would never suggest guests not enjoy our wines in their youth; they are lovely young as well.  I would simply caution tasters from only experiencing the wines before they've had a chance to fully develop.  I often suggest having a few bottles of the same vintage on hand and tasting one every couple of years to watch them mature and change over time.  [We provide a vintage aging chart on our website to help take the guess work out of when to open our wine.]  Alas, we cannot all have closets full of Tablas Creek wine on hand for such experiments and that is why I am excited to share our Collector's Tasting Experience (previously known as our "Reserve Tasting").

In our Collector's Tasting Experience, I can finally take a deep breath, relax and allow the wines to speak for themselves.  It's an intimate, seated tasting, focusing on wines that we've cellared for some years, and typically including multiple older vintages of our Esprit de Tablas. This allows guests to experience first-hand how the bottle aging process deepens and complicates the youthful flavors, while also often revealing  the secondary flavors a young wine just hasn't developed yet.  It is so satisfying to watch the recognition stretch across my guests' faces as they recognize how dramatically these wines develop with age.  I hope this tasting experience will encourage guests to purchase current release wines and hold them to their peak maturity, but we also have a small stock of these library wines to offer to the guests who've come for this special tasting.

Whether you are a long-time member of our wine club or have recently discovered Tablas Creek, we hope that you'll find the Collector's Tasting to be both a memorable and worthwhile experience. We offer two sessions Sunday-Friday at 11:30am and 3:00pm; Saturdays and holiday weekends we offer one session at 10:00am. We ask that reservations be made at least 24 hours in advance. The cost for the tasting is $40 for non-members/ $25 for members, and each tasting fee is waived with $250 purchase. To reserve a spot for this tasting, please contact us at [email protected], or just give us a call at (805)-237-1231.

It is a honor to share these wines with our fans who appreciate them and those who are also passionate about the Rhone movement in California.  Cheers!