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

Budbreak is terrifying (but hopeful)

With the recent warm weather, we're starting to see budbreak in our earlier-sprouting varietals, particularly Viognier and Grenache.  A Grenache vine pushes, below: As usual, we're seeing earlier budbread at the tops of the hills, which are less often frosted because the cold air slumps down

A sweet sweet-pea photo

The weather here has been beautiful over the past two weeks: warm and sunny, with days in the 70s and even (in the past couple of days) into the 80s.  On one level, this is scary; we're already seeing the first signs of bud break in some of

I'm a Wine Blog Awards finalist!

I got back from spending most of the last week on the East Coast (working in Virginia, during which I was lucky enough to enjoy a great dinner at Restaurant Eve in Alexandria and host a terrific wine dinner at the Keswick Hall Hotel in Charlottesville) with the happy surprise

Limestone in Paso Robles

Yesterday, I was over for a Paso Robles Rhone Rangers meeting at Halter Ranch.  Halter is a beautiful property just across Adelaida Road from Tablas Creek, and both were parts of the old Macgillivray Ranch through most of the 20th century.  After our meeting, Ranch Manager Mitch Wyss took me

Blogs that Inspire

In my "lessons learned from two years of blogging" post from the end of last year, I promised that I would write about some of the other blogs that I'd found particularly inspiring.  This has proven a difficult piece to finish, both because I keep finding

Wine shipping cost comments from a cancelled Wine Club member survey

Early this year, we made a point to reach out to our canceled VINsider Wine Club members and ask them for some feedback on what we could be doing better.  I'm not worried overall about our club members; our median tenure of a club member is about 3.