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Finding Closure(s) in Portugal

By Chelsea Franchi Here at Tablas Creek, we do things by hand and with care. In the vineyard and the cellar, it's paramount that everyone feels pride for their work and I'd like to think that attention and consideration translates to the product in the bottle.

Veraison in June? Not so fast, in Paso Robles at least.

In his blog this week, the Wine Spectator's Tim Fish reports that regions as diverse as Contra Costa, Santa Lucia Highlands and Santa Maria Valley are already seeing veraison: the point at which red grapes start turning color, and all grapes stop growing in size and turn to

Introducing the wines for the 2014 Collector's Edition shipment

Each June, I have the pleasure of tasting through our library vintages of Esprit de Beaucastel and Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc, with the goal of choosing the wines for the VINsider Wine Club Collector's Edition shipment in September. For those of you unfamiliar with the Collector's

Why we haven't offered red-only and white-only options for wine club members... and why we're doing it now

We're not big on change. OK, maybe that's me. I'm not big on change. So the fact that we're making what amounts to our first major change to our VINsider Wine Club since we introduced it in 2002 is significant. After several

Our crazy state alcohol laws: a farce in nine acts

You probably don't need me to tell you our alcohol laws are often crazy. But, well, our alcohol laws are crazy, particularly if you look at the state and local level. The national level, for what little it has to do with alcohol, tends to be positive, like

Game Theory, the Prisoner's Dilemma and... Winery Membership Organizations, Part 1

Game theory describes a branch of science at the intersection of economics, psychology and mathematics which explores models of interaction between rational actors, seeking to explain why and when these actors (be they individuals, companies or even nations) will choose to cooperate or to betray each other. Many of these

The red wines from the 2013 vintage come into focus

Blending is always an exciting time for me. Up until that time, the different wine lots in the cellar have been potential, and we're looking at them principally in terms of the problems that they might present. One might not be through fermentation. Another might be a little

With an early flowering, we start the clock on the 2014 harvest

There are annual milestones we look at that help us gauge the progress of each harvest, of which flowering is the second. Budbreak (when the buds sprout) is first, but unreliable in our climate as an indicator of harvest time because of the frequency of spring frosts. Veraison (marked by

20 Seconds of Serenity in the Vineyard

It will come as no surprise to followers of this blog that it has been an unusual weather year. We started the year off dry and warm, in a season it's more typically cold and wet. Then, in March, when it's usually drying out, it started

Wildflowers in the Vineyard: More Than Just Pretty Faces

By Lauren CrossThanks to the late rainstorms we had recently, it is now wildflower season here at Tablas Creek! One of the many benefits of our organic and biodynamic property is the prolific wildlife that lives symbiotically throughout the vineyard. We leave sections of the vineyard to our native vegetation