Sign in Subscribe

Jason Haas

Harvest 2008 (Week of September 8th): Viognier, Syrah, Vermentino, and Chardonnay

After a hot stretch in late August and the first few days of September caused several varietals to race toward ripeness simultaneously, last week saw more moderate temperatures and a much slower harvest pace than we'd feared. We actually had a few foggy mornings out at the vineyard

Updated "How's it drinking" Vintage Chart

We've received a growing number of inquiries over the last few months about how our older wines are evolving in bottle from customers who have the wines in their cellars and are wondering if the wines are ready to drink. We've had a rudimentary vintage chart

Harvest 2008 Begins!

Well, we've finally begun this year's harvest. Yesterday and today, we've been harvesting our Viognier, which as usual is our first varietal in the cellar. 2008's harvest started about a week later than the 2007 harvest did, consistent with a slightly later

A family wedding (and a wonderful 1983 Pommard: Prince de Merode "Clos de la Platiere")

Regular readers have probably noticed a gap of about 10 days since my last post. Yes, this means I have broken one of my fundamental rules for winery blogging, but I can only offer the excuse that I've been busy in Vermont preparing for my sister's

Pig Roast!

Each August, we hold a pig roast here at the winery. We got the idea originally five years ago because our neighbor was having problems with feral pigs and offered to get us one for an event, and have continued the event with farm-raised pigs (in the absence of conveniently

A winery blog? Who needs it?

As the Tablas Creek blog has gotten more established, I've started to receive questions from other wineries about how to get started. I have written posts on Learning How to Blog and on the (somewhat related) Usability Lessons for Winery Web Sites. Still, reading a surprisingly pessimistic assessment

Animated satellite images of Paso Robles morning fog retreating up the Salinas River Valley

We've been in the midst of a glorious weather pattern for most of the last three weeks. These days begin with fog in the mornings in Paso Robles where I live (though usually not at the vineyard) and nighttime temperatures in the mid-40s. The fog burns off by

AVA Approval Gridlock at the TTB

There is an interesting post today at Steve Heimoff's blog on the current mess that is the Tax and Trade Bureau's (TTB's) approval process for American Viticultural Areas (AVA's). I posted a comment on his site that I thought warranted a fuller

Veraison 2008 Photos of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and Counoise

We're seeing veraison in most of our red varieties. Our timing is nearly identical to last year, when I wrote my post on Veraison on July 27th. Veraison (sometimes anglicized to verasion and pronounced vuh-rey-zhun) is the time of year when berries stop increasing in size and refocus

July Vineyard Photo Album

After a couple of weeks of seasonably warm weather (days in the 90s or low 100s and nights in the 50s) we had a break in the heat from a cut-off low and a resulting deep marine layer. Sunday and Monday we had fog in the morning, breezy, cool days