Assessing the impact of the recent heat wave

Our recent heat wave has finally broken.  Today's high was 82°, and it's already dropped a few degrees since then as a brisk on-shore breeze has picked up.  This is a welcome change from recent days, the last eight of which all topped out at 95°

Tablas Esprit and Beaucastel Châteauneuf: Takes Two to Tango

By Darren Delmore As the National Sales Manager for Tablas Creek vineyard, my travels keep leading me to circumstances where I’m asked to compare Esprit de Beaucastel to Chateâu de Beaucastel. “So which wine is better?” I’ve heard many times over, as if there’s a clear right

We welcome a new grape to California: Picardan

Today we make history as we plant 1000 vines of Picardan in a rugged block we've reserved for new grape varieties at the extreme western edge of our property. This is the culmination of a nearly decade-long process.  We decided in late 2003 that we wanted to have

Announcing the wines in the 2013 VINsider Collector's Edition shipment

One of my highlights each June is the tasting where we get to choose which library vintage of the Esprit and Esprit Blanc we will include in the VINsider Wine Club Collector's Edition shipment in September.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Collector's Edition, we

The Pleasure of Discovered Bottles

By Robert Haas Over the last 59 years I have been buying, selling, and putting wines in my cellar, first in Vermont, and then in California as well.  And, of course, there is the house cellar and the storage cellar in each place.  So I have an excuse for occasionally

Stepping out of Beaucastel's Shadow

It is time.  After a decade of Esprit de Beaucastel, our flagship wines will bear a new name.  Please welcome Esprit de Tablas, to debut this fall with the release of the 2011 vintage. In early 2002, when we made the decision to put the Beaucastel name on our reserve-level

We check in on the vineyard's progress at the end of May

The end of May marks the end of our danger of frost and the end of any chance of spring rain.  As such, it is a good time to assess where we are.  Short version: things look good, and we're on track for a solid harvest at a

Off with Their Heads: We Graft our Chardonnay to Counoise and Mourvedre

By Levi Glenn We have been accused of being part of the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) contingent, but that wasn’t true... until now. Since 2000, we've harvested our two-acre Chardonnay block -- originally used to produce vine material for our grapevine nursery -- and used it to

Tablas Creek is a finalist for 2013 Best Winery Blog!

We are proud to have been named a finalist for "Best Winery Blog" at the 2013 Wine Blog Awards.  This is the sixth consecutive year we've been honored as a finalist, and we've taken home the trophy twice, in 2008 and 2011.  We'

When Terroir Was a Dirty Word

By Robert Haas Take a look at this picture of the half-bottle of 2010 Meursault from Thierry and Pascale Matrot that my wife, Barbara and I opened for lunch on our little back patio yesterday. We enjoyed lunch outdoors because the temperature at noon was 68 degrees, 20 degrees cooler