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&

Tablas Creek is a "Best Winery Blog" Finalist!

I'm proud to announce that Tablas Creek has again been named a finalist for "Best Winery Blog" at the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards.  These awards, created and administered by the tireless Tom Wark (whose blog Fermentation is a daily must-read for anyone in the wine

Fog in the Vineyard

It's not foggy out at Tablas Creek very often.  Our elevation (1500 feet) and the barrier of the Santa Lucia Mountains mean that neither the Salinas Valley fog that settles in areas close to town on summer mornings nor the Pacific fog that comes through the Templeton Gap

Wine markups at the wholesale, restaurant and retail level

I try not to rant about the wholesale market for wine in the United States.  Really I do.  I know that distributors and retailers play an important role both in marketing and in delivering wine to the millions of American wine consumers, and I am grateful for the work of

Snow in the Vineyard

We're (finally, thankfully) in a cold, wet winter weather pattern.  Over the past four days we've received about 3.5 inches of rain, and it appears that we have Pacific storms dropping down out of Alaska every other day for the next ten days or so.

Succeeding in a poor economy: it's all about the fundamentals

I get questions every day from people asking how our sales are holding up overall and what we're doing to help survive the current struggling economy.  Most people look surprised, and then relieved, to hear we're doing pretty well, all things considered.  Our wholesale sales were

Announcing the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards

Tom Wark, on his blog Fermentation, has announced that nominations are open for the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards.  We were proud to win the 2008 Best Winery Blog, and I am hoping that we will be competitive in this category again.  But, regardless of how we do, these awards