The Fall 2026 VINsider "Collector's Edition" Shipment: Now with More Library

If you're a long-time reader of the blog, you know that each summer, I taste through library vintages of our Esprit and Esprit Blanc to choose the wines for the upcoming VINsider Wine Club Collector's Edition shipment. You may also have noticed something new: Chelsea is holding three wines instead of the usual two, as we have added a third wine to the library selection for the first time.

Here's the story. We created the Collector's Edition version of our VINsider Wine Club back in 2009 to give our biggest fans a chance to see what our flagship wines were like aged in perfect conditions. Members also get a slightly larger allocation of the current release of Esprits to track as they evolve. This club gives us a chance show off our wines' ageworthiness, and it's been a great success, generating a waiting list each year since we started it. In more recent years, we've also started stashing some of our smaller-production wines that we feel might shine with a little longer cellar time and I'm excited to share that this fall, we'll be sending out the first of these – the 2021 Le Complice – exclusively to Collector's Edition members.

We also have another development to share that's taken even longer to come to fruition. When we started the Collector's Edition back in 2009, the oldest wine we had to release (the 2003 Esprit de Beaucastel) wasn't really all that old... just six years old, and just four years older than the current release. So as we've been able, we have held back some extra supply of some of our best red vintages and are circling back to those older vintages after a little extra time in our cellar. For this fall, we're circling back to the 2016 Esprit de Tablas. At ten years old, it's showing a lovely balance of freshness and maturity. It's a knockout now, but has more than a decade of life ahead of it, and the extra age should provide an even better contrast to the new vintages.

The library wines in this year's selection all come from dry years, where we felt that we could taste the concentration that the year produced in every wine. In a blog from 2022 where I was trying to connect people who loved one vintage with others like it, I described each year in the following way:

• 2016: Even though we were still in the drought, rainfall was improved (and better timed) than the previous years, and the vineyard healthier under our new Biodynamic protocols. Yields recovered to relatively normal levels from 2015's punishingly low totals. A warm summer produced intense wines but with elegance and freshness, excellent whites and reds with dark colors and the structure to age. Similar vintages: 2002, 2006, 2019. [You can read my recap of the 2016 vintage here.]
• 2020: A year that many of us would like to forget, but which looks like it produced wines we’ll want to remember. The growing season was challenging, with below-average rain, a cool early summer followed by record-breaking heat in early August and mid-September, wildfires to our north and south, and, oh, a pandemic. The heat produced an early, compressed harvest. Whites turned out to be outstanding, with a lusciousness bolstered by good acids. Similar vintages: 2003 and 2014. [My recap of the 2020 vintage can be found here.]
• 2021: I think 2021 has produced wines that rival the best we've seen in our history. Yields were reduced by a dry, chilly winter, with 13 of the 16 inches of rain coming in one January storm. The summer was lovely except for a July heat spike, and harvest unfolded in ideal conditions, with each warm stretch followed by a cool-down to give the vines (and us) some time to recover. The resulting wines have concentration and freshness, juicy appeal but structure, and (as we often see in our best years) well defined varietal character. Seemingly equally strong for both whites and reds. Similar vintages: 2007, 2017, and 2019. [My recap of the 2021 vintage can be found here.]

All three wines showed a lovely balance of youth and evolution when Chelsea and I opened and tasted them today. The trio:

The tasting notes that we wrote up from today's tasting:

• 2020 Esprit de Tablas Blanc: Still a youthful pale gold color. A lovely nose of honey and lemongrass, oyster shell and yellow peach. On the palate, rich but still tangy with flavors of anise, vanilla custard, baked apple, pineapple core and St. Germain. There's a pretty little lemon pith bite on the finish that helps keep the wine clean and fresh. 46% Roussanne, 28% Grenache Blanc, 14% Picpoul Blanc, 5% Bourboulenc, 4% Clairette Blanche, and 3% Picardan: our first Esprit Blanc to include all six Chateauneuf-du-Pape varieties. Would be amazing with crab or lobster, lemon chicken, or Asian preparations of seafood. Enjoy now and over the next decade.
• 2016 Esprit de Tablas: A meaty, evergreen nose like a roasted rosemary-rubbed leg of lamb. Additional umami notes of dried chanterelles and iron filings sit over blackberry bramble and black cherry fruit. The mouth shows flavors of chocolate truffle, black raspberry fruit leather, crushed rock minerality and an autumnal note like oak leaves and new leather. The tannins are still substantial but have softened notably, giving the wine creamy texture and a very long finish. 46% Mourvedre, 31% Syrah, 18% Grenache, and 5% Counoise. Would shine with anything from a rack of lamb to pasta with wild mushrooms to braised short ribs. Enjoy now and over the next two decades.
• 2021 Le Complice: A savory, tangy, spicy nose of pine forest and gunpowder, black olive and tobacco leaf, mint and pink peppercorn. By contrast, the palate is generous with flavors of blackberry and peppermint, black licorice, dark chocolate and crushed rock. The tannins are cloaked in rich fruit, leaving a lingering finish of spicy Mexican chocolate. 59% Syrah, 32% Grenache, 8% Terret Noir, and 1% Muscardin: the first appearance of Muscardin in a Tablas Creek wine. This would be great with a leg of lamb or cassoulet or almost anything grilled. Enjoy now and over the next two decades.

The complete Collector's Edition shipment is awfully exciting. We've developed enough of a library that we're including a library red wine (the 2018 Esprit) to all club members, so between that, the Collector's Edition wines, and the new releases from the outstanding vintages 2024 and 2025, the combined package is I think very cool indeed. The collection:

• 2 bottles of 2016 Esprit de Tablas
• 1 bottle of 2018 Esprit de Tablas
• 3 bottles of 2024 Esprit de Tablas
• 1 bottle of 2020 Esprit de Tablas Blanc
• 1 bottle of 2021 Le Complice
• 1 bottle of 2024 En Gobelet
• 1 bottle of 2024 Grenache
• 1 bottle of 2025 Lignée de Tablas Fenaughty Vineyard Blanc
• 1 bottle of 2025 Grenache Blanc

We will be adding to the Collector's Edition membership, subject to available space, in the next month. If you're on the waiting list, you should be receiving an email with news of whether you've made it on for this round. We add members, once a year, in the order in which we received applications to the waiting list. If you are currently a VINsider member and interested in getting on the waiting list, there's a good chance we'll be able to get you in this year. You can upgrade to the Collector's Edition online or by giving our wine club office a call at 805.237.1231 x236. And if you are not currently a member, but would like to be, you can sign up for the VINsider Wine Club Collector's Edition, with all the benefits of VINsider Wine Club membership while you're on the waiting list.

To those of you who are members, thank you for being a part of the Tablas Creek family. We don't take you for granted and will continue to look for fun new ways to share our library of older wines with you.