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Jason Haas

Thoughts on Taste Live, Twitter and online wine tasting

Last Friday, I was fortunate to be invited to participate in the Taste Live (formerly Twitter Taste Live) online wine tasting in honor of Hospice du Rhone. For the uninitiated, Taste Live is a community of over 1000 wine (and beer) enthusiasts who get together roughly every couple of weeks

The real differences between eastside and westside Paso Robles

I've gotten a series of questions recently, mostly from people inside the trade, asking me some variation of the question "so, you're pretty far west in Paso Robles, right? That must mean you're cooler than a lot of those big eastside wineries."

Congratulations to... my wife Meghan?

So, we just completed the third annual VINsider NCAA tournament bracket. And once again, our fans showed that their skill in choosing winners extends beyond just wine. The median entry in the ESPN VINsider group that I set up was in the 60th percentile. I encourage the Tablas Creek staff

A first look at the surprisingly lush 2008 whites

This afternoon, we got together to taste our first preliminary blends of the 2008 whites. Up until this point, we've been tasting through different lots, but nothing systematic. My impression going into the tasting was that 2008, after all its challenges, would be a vintage more like the

Twitter Taste Live, Tablas Creek and an online wine tasting in honor of Hospice du Rhone

A couple of months ago, I created a Twitter account (jasonchaas; or follow it here). I figured that I'd lurk around a little and see what uses it might have for Tablas Creek. Since then, I've spent a higher percentage of my time than usual on

A Last Dose of Winter

I just got back from spending the weekend in San Francisco, host to the Rhone Rangers Grand Tasting and its two days of seminars, trade and consumer tastings, and fifteen-winery winemaker dinner. The events were great... well attended despite the economy, with a great vibe to them all. Those of

On the Road Again

I'm in day five of a five-day swing through Southern California, with stops taking me to Pasadena, Del Mar, Costa Mesa, Long Beach and (later today) back to Pasadena. This is a long trip for me; I am not usually gone over weekends, and not usually gone for

West Paso Robles Wind Flow, the Templeton Gap and the Adelaida Climate

As I've said before, it's great to have interesting friends. I got a question from one of them (Kelly Bobbitt of Mike Bobbitt Associates, vineyard mappers here in San Luis Obispo County) asking about a model that he'd created to show the incursions of

Signs of Spring

We've been getting lots of small rainstorms over the last month. It's a lot better than what we saw in January, so I'm not really complaining, but we're still missing that one big five-inch dousing that will really replenish the reservoirs and

Creating a new wine: En Gobelet

Our model at Tablas Creek is pretty consistent from year to year. We make our Esprit de Beaucastel (red and white) and Cotes de Tablas (red and white). We make our Rosé. We make somewhere between six and nine single varietal wines depending on what's compelling when we&