What the Tablas Creek team will be drinking with our Thanksgivings in 2024

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. It's brings extended family together for a day of cooking, eating, and reflecting on what we're grateful for. It's still largely uncommercialized. And it comes at a time of year where those of us who work at wineries are finally able to slow down and relax. Even after a relatively early harvest like this year's, that's something to be thankful for.

Before diving into specific recommendations, it's worth going over some things that don't change. Try not to stress over your choices. Open a range of wines. Expect each of them to sing with a dish or two, coexist peacefully enough with another, and maybe clash with something. That can be fun, and instructive. Remember, and accept that it's OK, that nothing will pair particularly well with sweet potato casserole or roasted Brussels sprouts. Open a few more wines than you think you'll need, and don't feel bad about having wine leftovers, along with your food. You'll likely learn something, and have fun along the way. Remember that open bottles kept in the fridge should be fine for a week or more. And if you're still stressing after reading all these recommendations, I refer you to the 2016 piece on W. Blake Gray's blog where he set up a simple 5-question quiz to answer the question "is this wine good for Thanksgiving". I'm sure I haven't gone through every possible combination, but I've never gotten any answer other than "yes".

OK, now that I've told you any choice is perfectly fine, it's only fair that I acknowledge my own preferences. After all, there are wines that I tend to steer clear of, like wines that are powerfully tannic (which tend to come off even more so when they're paired with some of the sweeter Thanksgiving dishes), and wines that are high in alcohol (which tend to be fatiguing by the end of what is often a marathon of eating and drinking). But that still leaves you plenty of options. With a traditional turkey dinner, I tend to steer people toward richer whites and rosés, and fruitier reds relatively light in oak and tannin. Plenty of Tablas Creek wines fit these broad criteria, so if you want to stay in the family, you could try anything from Marsanne to Esprit Blanc to Dianthus Rosé to Counoise or Cotes de Tablas. Richer red meat preparations open up a world of Mourvedre-based reds young or old, from Esprit de Tablas to Panoplie to En Gobelet, which just (say it out loud) sounds like something you should be drinking at this time of year.  

But I'm just one person. As I've done the last several years, I reached out to our team to ask them what they were planning on drinking this year. This is super fun for me to see, and I'm hoping it will be as much fun for you. One thing I love is that while some will be drinking Tablas Creek, many (including me!) have made other choices. And that's normal. Those of us who work in wine usually do so part because we love its many facets, and there's an amazing variety of wine made around the world. Whether you choose an American wine for this quintessentially American holiday, or celebrate America as a melting pot by choosing wines from elsewhere, I refer you back to Blake Gray's article. You're not wrong.

My team's responses are below, in their own words, in alphabetical order. It's a bit of a smaller list this year since I was a little late getting out the request, but if you need more inspiration, check out the team's suggestions from other eras. One great thing about Thanksgiving pairing blogs... they're timeless, since the dishes don't change much and there's almost always a new vintage of each wine.

Charlie Chester, Senior Assistant Tasting Room Manager
This Thanksgiving, Amber, Haylee, Brandon, and I are headed to my sister Kacey’s place in Carpenteria for a gathering of family and friends. We’re planning a feast: smoked turkey, ham, and all the traditional sides.

Over the three days we’re there, we’ll most likely enjoy many wines. Some that we know will be consumed around the dinner table include a crisp Grenache Blanc from Absolution Cellars, The Dodd from Lone Madrone, a bolder red for my brother-in-law, and a bottle of Gold Coast Pinot Noir from Story of Soil that I’ve been saving for a special occasion.

Amanda Collins, Cellar Master
It’s a two-Thanksgiving kind of year for this Collins family!

For our festivities, I predict a generous selection of wines to accompany the meals. Our first dinner will be an intimate gathering of just 40 (yes, you read that right)! With an array of homemade dishes, we’ll opt for wines that are clean and classic to complement—not clash with—all the flavors. One of my go-to choices for such culinary adventures is Sandlands Contra Costa Red Table Wine. It’s effortlessly confident, offering juicy red fruits with a touch of earthiness on the finish. It’s a wine that has never disappointed me. Another crowd-pleaser is our very own Counoise, which I’m sure will get a mention or two in others’ posts as well. This bottle is packed with crunchy red fruit, a vibrant mid-palate, and a bright, lifted finish that keeps you coming back for more.

For our second evening, a more traditional affair with just five guests, we can afford to go a little bolder since there are fewer palates to please. We’ll start with Littorai Sonoma Coast Chardonnay—complex, fresh, and wonderfully light, it’s the perfect wine to kick things off without weighing you down. Then, because we can, we’ll do a side-by-side of Esprit Rouge and Beaucastel Rouge. Both are textural, rich, and plush, with dark, luxurious notes and long, satisfying finishes.

Here’s to celebrating Thanksgiving—twice, and in style!

Austin Collins, Cellar and Vineyard
Thanksgiving 2024 is set to be a real doozy. We will be hosting a group of about 40 this year and the beverage choices will surely be a mixed bag. As with most years, the presence of Bristols Cider will be strong. Because, it doesn’t really get much better than cider on a blustery autumnal day, or any day for that matter. As for wine I will throw in a 2023 Lagniappe Seersucker, a Sauvignon Blanc from the Columbia Gorge made by dear friend Lisette Hrapmann (of Swampwater fame). For reds I would like to keep up with tradition and open a few bottles of Beaujolais, this year focusing on the wines of Quentin Harel, a favorite of the young producers of the region. Cheers to all and keep your heads up!

Neil Collins, Director of Winemaking
It’s that time again! Choosing the wines that will grace the thanksgiving table.

It’s a big group this year so I will include a magnum of 2015 Esprit Blanc. I poured this at a “Friendsgiving” event recently and it was perfect out of magnum. We brought some Rieslings back from Germany this summer so i think we will open a Furst Lowenstein, Furstlicher Kallmuth 2021. I am a fan of Antiquum Farms in Oregon and I think their 2021 Alium Pinot Gris will be a good fit. Lastly i will have to open a bottle of the very first Lone Madrone Estate Zinfandel 2022. In reality there are so many wines to choose from, but as long as the company is in good spirit and there is food on the table then the wine will take its place. Happy Thanksgiving and thanks to you all…… Neil

PS Yes there will be cider.

Ian Consoli, Director of Marketing
I am having a small gathering this Thanksgiving, so I am opening up fewer bottles than usual. I still want to experiment with how different wines play with the meal and will open a sparkling, white, and red. The sparkling is a Champagne from Laurent-Perrier that our Controller Denise Chouinard gifted me when I graduated from my Wine EMBA program two years ago. I’ve been sitting on this one! The white wine is a South African Chardonnay from Tesselaarsdal that I’m told can rival a white Burgundy. Game on! Finally, the red is a Beaujolais Nouveau from Domaine Dupeuble. This style of wine is a Thanksgiving classic that I have yet to try with the meal. I am looking forward to it! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Terrence Crowe, Tasting Room
For this years thanksgiving dining experience I will be opening a few bottles for family.

Kinero Cellars 2022 Macbride Vineyard old vine Chardonnay. 
Tablas Creek Vineyard 2015 Esprit de Tablas rouge.
Kinero Cellars 2022 James Berry vineyard Roussanne. 
Domaine Stephane Ogier, 2020 Saint Joseph Le Passage.

Happy thanksgiving and may your dining and drinking experiences fill your souls with joy. Cheers, Terrence

Darren Delmore, National Sales Manager
This year we'll be spending the holiday in West Sonoma with friends and family. On tap is some Esprit de Tablas Blanc 2018, and a special Sonoma County wine I've owned since 2008 that I'm really excited to dust off and check in on: a magnum of Ridge 2006 Lytton Springs. A mixed-blacks legend based on Zinfandel but with a heavier hit of Petite Sirah than their Geyserville bottling gets, should be in a fine place with the larger format at the 18 year old mark. Happy holidays!  

Jules Giese, Tasting Room Team Lead
This Thanksgiving I’ll be staying local and celebrating with some good friends. I’m very lucky and get to take a backseat when it comes to cooking this year but of course I'll still be bring wine. I managed to get my hands on a magnum of 2017 Esprit Blanc a while back. It's a vintage I wasn't fortunate enough to pour in the tasting room but is well loved by those who did. I've been lucky enough to try it here and there. It's been a while since I last had it but the Esprit just gets better and better with age so I think it'll be an great pairing for the meal that will hold it's own against the reds. Also 2017 was a pretty wet year for Paso so it feels fitting opening a bottle this rainy Thanksgiving week.

Dusty Hannah, Tasting Room
This year my Thanksgiving wines will consist of:

• A sparkling Gamay from Domaine Migot Brut from the Lorraine region of France. I like a good light bodied red such as Gamay and I decided to throw some sparkling into the mix because it's a celebration!
• I had a wonderful tasting at Brick House, a biodynamic producer in the Willamette, in September so I will be opening a 2022 Chardonnay Cascadia. A lovely pairing with my roasted turkey and sweet dinner rolls.
• In addition to Turkey on my Thanksgiving table this year there will also be brisket and Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving with at least one Tablas Creek wine. Therefore I think my 2015 Esprit de Tablas would be a lovely pairing. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Gustavo Prieto, Biodynamicist
We are starting with bubbles, with a biodynamic producer from the Loire valley, the Cremant from Amirault, a blend mostly of Chenin Blanc, some Chardonnay and Cab Franc. For the main dinner, we’ll have as always one of my favorites wines from Tablas: an older vintage of the Esprit de Tablas Blanc. And for a red, we’ll be opening a 2015 magnum of the Esprit de Tablas. 

Randy Thurman, Systems Administrator & Facilities Manager
There will be a couple bottles open with dinner most likely an Esprit Blanc and a red wine of some sort. Always a surprise on the red and it changes every year. Most likely a syrah of some sort as it’s my father in laws favorite type of wine.

And as for me...
Typically, my choice is to open the largest bottle I have to hand at Thanksgiving gatherings. There's usually a story behind a big bottle, and the randomness of "just open it" adds a certain amount of pleasurable discovery to the gathering, as well as the festivity that large bottles bring. But I'm spending Thanksgiving in Vermont where I grew up, and my dad really didn't collect large-format bottles. So we did the best we could by buying a magnum of Beaujolais (a Morgon from Domaine Lapierre that we found at our lovely local wine shop Meditrina) and we'll open some Esprit Blanc, probably a rosé as well, and we'll probably also break into a dessert wine, because if not with a meal like this, when you have a crowd around the table and aren't expected to do anything beyond play games and watch football, when?!? Beyond that, we'll see.

Wherever you are, however you're celebrating, please know that we are thankful for you. May your celebrations be memorable, the wines you open outstanding, and the company even better.

November is the month for epic vineyard photos

Something about November just hits different. Maybe it's the lower sun angles. Maybe it's the clouds. Maybe it's the fall colors. Or maybe it's that daylight savings has ended, so I'm here at the vineyard as the sun sets each day. Whatever the reason, it's a month where I find myself grabbing my camera and walking west to chase the setting sun more often than any other. I wanted to share some of my favorite photos I've gotten recently, starting with the vineyard road I usually follow out into the middle of the vineyard:

The grapevines are starting to lose their leaves, especially in low-lying areas where we've gotten a few hard freezes recently, which makes for a nice contract with the olive trees. We've been harvesting olives this week, and are seeing a bumper crop:

The blocks that do still have leaves are typically on hillsides, where the cold air can drain away. Syrah is particularly pretty at this time of year, reminding me of maple leaves from Vermont where I grew up:

Other blocks can feel downright wintery already. This Mourvedre block has already lost most of its leaves, with the exception of a few tufts of green leaf growth on the canes' tips:

The grapevines aren't the only things losing their leaves. This peach tree seems to lose all its leaves almost at once, each year:

There's a view I come back to, season after season, because I love the depth that it shows, with lines of hills receding west toward the horizon. These are Counoise vines in the front, with Syrah behind:

The live oaks don't lose their leaves, so they stand out dark against the fading light: 

I'll leave you with one more photo, a classic sunset shot, with cotton candy clouds over Grenache vines. We spend so much of the year without clouds that when they do return it's always striking:

Speaking of clouds, it's looking like we're going to get our first real rain of the year at the end of the week. Although we won't see the potentially historic results that are being predicted for the coast between the Bay Area and Portland, Oregon, it looks like we'll get an inch or so of rain. And honestly, that's perfect. It's supposed to stay unsettled after, and getting an inch of water in the ground should allow our cover crop to germinate. Getting six inches might have meant it would wash away:

Remarkable view of #BombCyclone west of Oregon & Washington and associated #AtmosphericRiver west of California this PM. Fortunately, the strongest winds will remain well offshore, but very heavy rainfall is likely across portions of northern CA into weekend. #CAwx #ORwx #WAwx

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— Daniel Swain (@weatherwest.bsky.social) November 19, 2024 at 3:46 PM

Between several frosty mornings this week and the wind and rain from the storm coming on Friday, these views will likely look dramatically different by next week. And that's fine. Autumn has been lovely. Bring on winter.

A pilgrimage to a reimagined Beaucastel, built of the earth and with the Earth in mind

I just got back from two weeks in Europe. The first two-thirds of the trip involved visits to work with our importers in the UK (thank you, Liberty Wines) and Germany (thank you, Veritable Vins & Domaines). The last third of it I got to spend with the Perrins, checking in on their many projects in and around Chateauneuf-du-Pape. I've been visiting Beaucastel for my whole life¹, and the lovely cream-colored stone chateau with its cellar filled with foudres and unlabeled bottles has been the one relative constant among an ever-growing collection of estates, projects, and partnerships that the Perrin family have built over the last half-century. Now, Beaucastel, which has been run by the Perrins since 1909, has received its reimagining that manages to be ground-breakingly innovative while preserving a deeply traditional aesthetic.

I am excited to share with you the photos that I took of the new building and cellars at Beaucastel. It's jam-packed with the out-of-the-box thinking that the Perrin family is famous for. But first, an appreciation of the family that we've partnered with to develop Tablas Creek for the last 35 years. As a group they are so smart, and so innovative, and there are so many of them (nine family members at the moment all working on different aspects of the business) that their capacity to develop new projects and see them through is truly remarkable. They have been leaders in progressive farming since the 1950s, when Jacques Perrin converted the estate to organic before there was even a word for it in French. They've been innovating in the grape varieties they grow for just as long². They make some of the world's best wines under $10/bottle at La Vieille Ferme, a diverse collection of terroir-driven explorations of their Rhone Valley home through Famille Perrin, and some of the world's most collectible treasures at Beaucastel. They own and operate a Michelin-star restaurant, l'Oustalet in Gigondas.

Tablas Creek isn't their only foray into collaborative projects. The Perrins have developed partnerships with Nicolas Jaboulet to make the Les Alexandrins wines from the Northern Rhone, and with Brad Pitt to make Miraval rosé in Provence. They and Pitt partnered with renowned Champagne winemaker Rodolphe Péters to make Fleur de Miraval Champagne, with Master Distiller Tom Nichol to make Gardener Gin, and with two renowned French research professors on Beau Domaine Skincare, which uses the active ingredients in grape skins, sap, and trunks to make cosmetics. They recently purchased a woodworking studio that is allowing them to reimagine the wooden case boxes that they're famous for at a lower carbon footprint than cardboard. Internationally, they are one of twelve members of Primum Familiae Vini, one of the largest wineries to commit to membership in International Wineries for Climate Action, and founding supporters of the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation.

Is your mind reeling yet? Mine always is a bit after spending a visit with the Perrins. 

For all the change and growth in the Perrin world, Beaucastel has been relatively unchanged over the last thirty years. The central chateau, which houses the offices for the estate, was until about a decade ago the home of Jacques Perrin's widow Marguerite. A collection of outbuildings had grown up in a rough quadrangle around the back of the estate, housing a collection of workshops, tractors and equipment. The cellar, with its dramatic array of foudres and stacked bottles, was one of the most recognizable in the world. One of the major challenges of this construction project was doing it around this treasure of aging wine. It was great to see that this centerpiece was unchanged even as it had been surrounded by entirely new access and infrastructure:

In their reconstruction project, the cellar's viability in an ever-hotter world and the desire to minimize the resources required to make their wines were of paramount importance. Everything other than the original chateau was taken down to the ground and a new cellar excavated two stories below the surface. At the bottom of this newly-excavated cellar is a series of four reservoirs that together hold nearly half a million gallons of water, refilled naturally with rain harvested from the building's roof. Because of their depth, these reservoirs maintain a constant year-round temperature of 14°C (58°F). One of the reservoirs:

These reservoirs are more than just a supply of water. Their principal purpose is to cool the rest of the cellar. The building was reoriented so that on the north face it includes a series of wind towers that catch the prevailing wind (the famous Mistral that blows more than 100 days each year) and directs it down over the water to cool it. That air is then used to cool the cellar. The view from the north, from where most guests will arrive, shows the five towers taking up both stories of the left half of the building's facade:

The materials used in the construction are a big part of what makes the building so exciting. Instead of sourcing virgin concrete or quarrying new stone, the vast majority of the building is made either out of the stones and concrete that were deconstructed from the previous building, or from rammed earth and site-made concrete from the materials excavated to dig the cellar. And the textures of the new building's materials are one of my lasting memories of my visit. In the below photo, you can see the rammed earth walls that surround the olive courtyard, with another repeated element of the construction: views of one element from another (in this case, the vineyards outside):

A second example of that same idea -- to connect the different spaces visually -- is shown in the next photo, looking from the entrance into the cellar:

One more photo of textures and materials, before I move to the fermentation and aging spaces. This is the entrance stairway, showing the site concrete, which absorbs CO2 as it cures. I read a review of the architectural style that described it as "monastic" which I thought was evocative. There's a timelessness in the spaces, a connection between cool, dark insides and warm, earth-colored exterior courtyards, that hearkens back to the monasteries that dot the Mediterranean landscape.

The ecclesiastical feel to the architecture isn't restricted to the materials. The underground rooms are vaulted like Gothic cathedrals, and the lighting is marvelous. This room will be an aging room, with bottles stacked on each side of a central corridor:

The old bottle storage space has been reimagined as the cellar dedicated to their barrel-fermented whites. The vaulted ceilings are highlighted by new lights:

One of the goals was to create multiple spaces where guests could taste. They don't have a traditional tasting room at Beaucastel, but welcome thousands of visitors, mostly trade, to the property each year. I spent a summer there in my youth where helping with these visits was one of my responsibilities. I can attest to how valuable it will be to have different areas with different ambiance where they can bring different groups for their tasting. They even have small vault dedicated to their Hommage a Jacques Perrin wines, like a royal chapel tucked away on the edge of a larger cathedral:

In the lower level of this cellar they have left a window through the walls into the layers of soil -- a mix of calcareous clay, loam, and pebbles -- that makes Chateauneuf-du-Pape such a coveted terroir. I framed the photo with the edges of the window in view in the hopes that you can feel how much the materials of the construction are in fact the earth in which it was dug:

The exit back to the surface is dramatic as well. The warm Mediterranean light suffuses the stairway back to the Olive Courtyard, reconnecting you with the region's famous color palette:

Back in the courtyard, work was proceeding like a hive of activity, with a team of Portuguese tile specialists installing the walkway around the olive garden:

For me, it was inspiring to see Beaucastel be reimagined in a way that feels so timeless. I spent the beginning of my visit trying to remember what had been in a particular place before the construction, but I have a strong feeling that once everything is done and the interiors complete it will be almost impossible to imagine it having been put together any other way. That this renovation was also achieved in a way that is so conscientious about its use of resources also feels fitting. From construction materials repurposed from the construction itself, to the cisterns that will keep the cellar cool with minimal use of refrigeration, to the water harvesting and reuse that will allow it to use less of scarce resources, all this feels appropriate for an estate with such a long tradition of environmental sustainability.

Most importantly, the building feels appropriate for Beaucastel. The Perrins are remarkable in the degree to which they balance a reverence for tradition with a relentlessly innovative approach. And this building embodies that duality. It thinks about the next century while embracing an aesthetic that feels of the region and appreciative of its history. It is of the earth while also being light in its impacts on the earth. It should be a marvelous place to make wine, and to experience its magic.

How cool. 

Footnotes:

1. If you're unfamiliar with how our two families got together back in the late 1960s, my dad tells the story in a blog from 2014.
2. I think it's very likely that some of the thirteen traditional Chateaueuf-du-Pape grapes would have gone extinct if not for Jacques' efforts to find all the ones that had survived into the 1950s and bring them back to plant at Beaucastel. I chronicle those stories in my Grapes of the Rhone Valley series on this blog.