Esprit de Tablas Rouge 2017 – Tablas Creek

To produce the Esprit de Tablas Rouge Tablas Creek, the blocks were individually hand-harvested in multiple passes for optimum ripeness. The grapes were fermented using native yeasts in a mixture of 6800 litre wooden upright fermenters, open-top tanks and closed stainless steel tanks. After pressing, the wines were moved to barrel and allowed to complete malolactic fermentation. The team selected the vintage’s best lots and blended them in May 2018. The wines were then aged in 5500 litre French oak foudres for another year before being bottled.

The Esprit de Tablas is produced from 100% estate grown fruit. Located twelve miles from the Pacific Ocean and with an average altitude of 450 metres above sea level, the estate’s hot and sunny days are tempered by cool nights, resulting in fully ripe grapes with fresh acidity. The site is dry-farmed, and certified organic and biodynamic. Its shallow, rocky and limestone-rich soils are based on the same geologic origins as the Beaucastel vineyards and the estate vineyard was planted with cuttings imported from the Beaucastel estate.

Tablas Creek was established in 1987 by two leading wine families: the Perrin family, founders of Château de Beaucastel, and the Haas family, owners of the US importer Vineyard Brands. After many years traveling the States together to promote the Perrin wines, Robert Haas and Jacques Perrin agreed that California’s Mediterranean climate was ideally suited to the Rhône’s native grape varieties and decided to establish their own estate. In 1989, they purchased a 50-hectare parcel in west Paso Robles, where the shallow, rocky and limestone-rich soils are based on the same geologic origins as the Beaucastel vineyards. Located twelve miles from the Pacific Ocean, the Tablas Creek Vineyard is named after the small creek which flows through the estate. The vineyards are on average 450 metres above sea level, where hot and sunny days are tempered by cool nights, resulting in fully ripe grapes with fresh acidity. Tablas Creek took the decision to import cuttings from the Beaucastel estate. They established their own nursery, with grafting facilities, to propagate their cuttings which were used to replant the estate vineyards. The sites are dry-farmed, and the estate has been certified organic since 2003 and biodynamic since 2017. Reinforcing the estate’s commitment to sustainability, Tablas Creek became the first winery to attain Regenerative Organic Certification in 2020. Their intention is to ensure the purest vineyard and vintage expression.