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Library Wines

A collection of 109 posts

Checking in on the 2009 Esprit de Beaucastel

I have a confession to make. I know that winemakers and winery proprietors are supposed to love all their creations, but I'm afraid that the 2009 vintage was never a favorite of mine. Products of the third year of drought, further concentrated by some of the most damaging

Choosing the Wines for the Fall 2018 VINsider "Collector's Edition" Shipment

Each summer, I have the pleasure of tasting through library vintages of our Esprit de Beaucastel and Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc to choose the wines for the upcoming VINsider Wine Club Collector's Edition shipment. We created the Collector's Edition version of our VINsider Wine Club back

Into the Heart of Darkness: Tasting every Tablas Creek Tannat 2002-2017

Each year, we pick a wine we've been making for a while and open up all that wine's vintages, for the dual purposes of better understanding how it ages over time and better advising our fans which vintages to open if they're looking for

A Horizontal Retrospective: Tasting Every Wine from 2008 at Age 10

In 2014 we began the tradition of looking back each year at the vintage from ten years before. Part of this is simple interest in seeing how a wide range of our wines -- many of which we don't taste regularly -- have evolved, but we also have

Checking in on our first ever Tablas Creek red: the 1997 Rouge

In the early days of Tablas Creek, we followed a very simple model: one red wine (which we called "Rouge") and one white wine (which we called "Blanc"). In 1999, we got really crazy and added a pink wine, which we called (of course) "Rosé&

We celebrate the holidays with a vertical tasting of 16 vintages of Esprit Blanc

The holidays are a time of year when many of us reach back into our wine libraries to pick out a special vintage we've been saving for just the right moment. We keep our vintage chart updated for exactly these sorts of inquiries. But while there are some

Tasting the Wines for the 2017 VINsider Wine Club "Collector's Edition" Shipment

Each June, I have the pleasure of tasting through library vintages of our Esprit de Beaucastel and Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc to choose the wines for the upcoming VINsider Wine Club Collector's Edition shipment. We created the Collector's Edition version of our VINsider Wine Club back

A Vertical Tasting of Every Vintage of Esprit de Beaucastel and Esprit de Tablas, 2000-2015

Some of the best days at the winery are the days when we open up back vintages of a specific wine, for the dual purposes of better understanding how it ages over time and better advising our fans which vintages to open if they're looking for peak drinking1.

A Horizontal Retrospective: 2007 at Age Ten

In 2014 we began the tradition of looking back each year at the vintage from ten years before. Part of this is simple interest in seeing how a wide range of our wines -- many of which we don't taste regularly -- have evolved, but we also have

Creating an Experience Worthy of Being Called the "Collector's Tasting"

[Editor's Note, April 2019: We have changed the selection of wines in this tasting somewhat, and are now featuring a 6-vintage vertical tasting of our flagship Esprit de Tablas, spanning the 2010-2016 vintages. It is a wonderful way to go in depth with our top red wine, to