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Jason Haas

The challenges of running out of wine

We're not running out of wine. Yet. But, for the first time ever, I can see it looming. It's not a familiar position for me. When we started, we made some mistakes in our marketing, the largest of which was neglecting to create a marketing plan.

Hospice du Rhone!

Last weekend was the 2008 Hospice du Rhone. As always, it was a terrific show, with a great mix of producers, distributors, restaurateurs, retailers, distributors and consumers. It's one of the few events I do where the trade and consumers interact so much, and on such equal footing.

A bullet dodged: only minor vineyard damage from a serious California-wide frost event

California was badly zapped last week by a deep trough of cold air that spread south from Canada and brought freezing nights from Mendocino to Santa Barbara. The perils presented by this frost were made more severe by the fact that it followed a week of unusually warm weather, where

Earth Day thoughts on sustainability in the world of wine

Today is the 39th annual Earth Day celebration, and a great time to assess wine's progress on its quest for sustainability. Wine, like any other agricultural product, has environmental impacts from its vineyard and winery practices, and additional impacts from its packaging and marketing (Tyler Coleman had an

Vineyard Photos of New Growth

I love going out into the vineyard at this time of year to take pictures. The yellowy-green color of the new growth is beautiful, and the cover crop is in full flower. Plus, the hills are gorgeous. Note that you can get full-screen images of all the photos on this

Usability Lessons for Winery Web Sites

I come at Web site design a little differently than most winery principals. My background is in high tech; before moving out to Paso Robles in 2002 to help manage Tablas Creek, I was a Senior Training Manager and Curriculum Director at WestLake Internet Training, which developed and taught classroom-style

Planting new vineyard: getting ready for more Mourvedre, Grenache Blanc and Vermentino

We realized a few years ago that our demand was growing, and (as we took a break in planting after 2000 to get our marketing in order) that if we didn't start planting soon, we'd start running dangerously short on wine. It takes three years in

Congratulations to Mark Royer

Congratulations to Mark Royer, from Menlo Park, CA, the winner of the third annual Tablas Creek VINsider NCAA Tournament Challenge! His bracket correctly predicted 6 of the Elite Eight, all of the Final Four, both of the finalists, and the Kansas Jayhawks as champions, placing him in the 99.1st

Frost Damage

As I'd feared when I posted about the early budbreak a week or so ago, we got a frost Sunday night. And not a little one, either. It got down to 27 degrees at the weather station in the center of the vineyard, which means that the coldest

I'd like to thank the Academy...

So, the votes have been tallied, and the Tablas Creek blog has won "Best Winery Blog" at the 2008 American Wine Blog Awards! Thank you to everyone who voted; the award was 70% determined by votes from the public. The other 30% was determined by the votes of