One last look back at 30 years of Tablas Creek, with legends
January 15, 2020
2019 was a year of milestones for us. We celebrated our 30th anniversary with a big party here and tastings around the country. We harvested three new grapes (Cinsaut, Bourboulenc, and Vaccarese) and finally achieved our goal of getting the fourteenth and final Chateauneuf du Pape grape (Muscardin) into the vineyard. One of the coolest experiences that came out of this was the retrospective tasting that we hosted here, where we tasted every vintage of our flagship red wine, from our 1997 Rouge to the 2017 Esprit de Tablas. We invited all the legendary Rhone Rangers winemakers we could contact to join us, and were excited that so many made the trip. And it was great to taste all those wines. But the highlight for me was the conversation in that room, listening to these friends and colleagues, many of whom have been fighting to establish our category for three decades or more, talk about the early days of the Rhone Rangers. It stood out to me that all of them talked about the arrival of Tablas Creek as a game-changing moment in the movement's history. The arrival of two families with such deep and established roots in the world of international wine was different than anything that had yet happened in the American Rhone movement.
After Neil and I had talked about those conversations for a bit, we came up with an idea. We invited a few of these figures to come and sit down with us on camera to talk about what Tablas Creek's arrival meant to them, and to the category that we all share. I'm proud to share the video that resulted. Huge thanks to Patrick Comiskey (Senior Correspondent for Wine&Spirits and author of American Rhone: How Maverick Winemakers Changed the Way Americans Drink), Bob Lindquist (Proprietor, Lindquist Family Wines), Justin Smith (Owner & Winemaker, Saxum Vineyards), and John Munch (Owner, Le Cuvier Winery).
The first thirty years of Tablas Creek were great. Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate last year. And, if the last twelve months is any indication, what's to come is going to be even more exciting. Stay tuned.