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Winery & Winemaking

A collection of 221 issues

Drying Mourvedre Grapes for Vin de Paille "Sacrérouge"

We don't make our vin de paille dessert wines every year. First, the grapes need to be in great shape before they're put on the straw, or they rot rather than drying, making some vintages unsuitable for the technique. Second, Americans don't buy large

Harvest 2014 at the Midway Point: Very Like 2013, which is a Good Thing

We finally feel like we're in the middle of harvest. Every day brings a mix of new fruit coming in, sample teams going out, both presses running as we press off fermented red lots and newly-harvested whites, winemakers on the sorting table and de-stemmer processing newly-harvested reds, and

Harvest 2014 slowed with a cool second half of August, but is picking up speed

It often happens in harvest that you get your first burst of fruit and then enter a lull, where it seems like half your vineyard is sitting there almost-but-not-quite ready. Because you're into the routine of daily punch-downs, and you've broken out your harvest equipment, it

Harvest 2014 begins: How our earliest-ever start also has longer-than-average hangtime

This Wednesday, August 13th, we welcomed sixteen tons of Syrah into our cellar, marking the beginning of the 2014 harvest. These bins were from Estrella Farms, in the warm heartland of the Paso Robles AVA, and will form the juicy core of our Patelin de Tablas. The fruit looked terrific,

A first timer's visit to Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Château de Beaucastel

By: Lauren Cross I arrived in Paris with two bags. One small bag was full of camera equipment. A second large suitcase held a few clothes and lots of packaging material. I had come with the intention of taking France home with me to California, bottle by bottle and image

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.

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

Malolactic, Misunderstood

There is a recurring item on the Wine Spectator Web site called "Ask Dr. Vinny". In it, the Spectator writers take on commonly asked questions about winemaking and wine consumption. Last month there was a question from a reader in the United Arab Emirates: "Is there any

Reining In Harvest 2013

By Chelsea Franchi I was standing in the entrance of the cellar on Monday with my hand wrapped around a steaming mug of coffee, watching as a storm rolled over the hills of Paso Robles and finally touch down on our vineyard. And I had a smile on my face.

A Tale of Two Rosés

For the last two years, we've been making two rosés. If that sounds nuts, it kind of is. But it's in keeping with using our wines to try to express something fundamental about the grapes that go into them. The first of our rosés, which we&