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Vineyard

A collection of 408 posts

Establishing Deep Roots - Q&A with Vineyard Manager David Maduena

By Lauren Phelps It was with great pleasure that I sat down with Vineyard Manager David Maduena to find out more about his 24-year career at Tablas Creek. David is the longest-tenured member of our team, beginning as a part of our first crews working to establish the

Photos of the Day: Hand-Grinding Quinces

We've picked all our grapes, and our olives. The stone fruits like peaches, nectarines and plums are long past. The vineyard is largely dormant after several frosty nights last week, and the cover crop sprouting. But there is one type of fruit tree that still had fruit hanging:

Harvest 2015 Recap: Mourvedre and Roussanne (somewhat) to the Rescue

The last two days, we picked the last batches of Roussanne off of our estate. This makes in one case six passes through a single block, harvesting what's ripe, leaving the rest to ripen a bit more, and repeating every week or two. In a year like 2015,

We Help the Vineyard Don Its Autumn Coat

This is the time of year when things start to slow down enough that you take new stock of what's around you. Harvest is mostly done (look for more on this later in the week). The days are getting quite short, and the nights notably cooler. The quality

We wind toward the close of a high quality but painfully low-yielding 2015 harvest

I snuck out yesterday morning to get some photos of the ever-diminishing portions of the vineyard that still have grapes on them. One block that I particularly wanted to see was Syrah, given that it was scheduled to be picked in the afternoon. It was looking suitably autumnal: We&

Harvesting under the stars

By: Lauren Phelps I arrived at the vineyard today at 4:00 AM in the crisp morning air to photograph the "night harvest" of one of our last blocks of Mourvedre. Our crew used only head-lamps and the lights from the tractors to harvest which was challenging

The man behind the beard: Q&A with Winemaker, Neil Collins

Editor's Note: This interview begins a series that we hope will help readers get to know the key people at Tablas Creek a little better. We're starting, appropriately, with Winemaker Neil Collins, who has made every vintage of Tablas Creek except 1997, when he was working

2015 International Grenache Day - The Cellar Crew Harvests Grenache

By Lauren Phelps Today is International Grenache Day and enthusiasts are connecting all over the world and coming together to celebrate this unique grape. (For a fun overview, check out the #GrenacheDay hashtag on Twitter.) We celebrated by harvesting a half-acre block of our vineyard that was originally planted

Mid-September Harvest Update: Why harvest started earlier than we predicted... and why our frighteningly low early yields may soon improve

Harvest, pushed by the last week of hot weather, has started to move fast. We've brought in nearly 80% of the grapes for our Patelin de Tablas wines, and nearly finished our early white grapes (Viognier, Vermentino, Marsanne) here off the estate. Tuesday, we picked our first estate

Harvest 2015 update: just over 15% completed & yields are looking low

By: Lauren Phelps In the cellar, things are in full-gear! According to veteran Assistant Winemaker Chelsea Franchi harvest is already over 15% completed. As of August 29th, we have worked with 65.82 tons of fruit. The 1700 gallon French oak upright fermenters are all full fermenting Syrah for