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Winery & Winemaking

A collection of 221 issues

Introducing California's first Petit Manseng

Fans of Tablas Creek on Facebook this week saw something unexpected: a photo of a bottling we've never done before. In fact, it's a bottling that no one in California has done before, that we know of at least. It's Petit Manseng, a white

Grapes of the Rhone Valley (sort of): Vermentino

Vermentino, with its bright acidity, aromas of citrus leaf and mineral, and refreshing finish, has become a favorite of Tablas Creek VINsiders and restauranteurs alike. Its story, however, does not originate in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and unlike most of Tablas Creek’s white varietals, it is a grape that is more commonly

What's that in my wine: tartrate crystals

A few weeks ago, we received the following email from a customer (edited to protect identity): Not the most pleasant of emails to receive. And I'm sure that to the customer who wrote, the surprise at the end of the bottle colored his experience of the wine he&

A first look at the 2010 reds: Wow.

Neil, Ryan, Chelsea, my dad and I spent the last two days tasting through our 2010 reds. 55 lots later, we have a much clearer sense of what the vintage is like. I'll get into details below, but overall, it was a very impressive tasting. The Grenaches were

Foudres, Demi Muids, Puncheons, and Wood Fermenters: The Appeal of Large Oak

Foudre- (Food’r)- French term for a large cask of indefinite size1 At Tablas Creek we follow the Châteauneuf-du-Pape tradition of maturing our red wines in 1200 gallon (4500 liter) French oak foudres rather than in the more familiar 60 gallon (225 liter) oak barrels. These smaller barrels – known

Blending, blending, blending... and an eventual look at the 2010 whites!

Over the last month, we've been narrowing down our options for what we'll make for estate white wines in the 2010 vintage. This isn't really practical before March, as too many lots are still finishing up their fermentations, but beginning in mid-March most everything

Chronicling a Year in the Southern Rhone

In January I had the pleasure of sitting in on Marc Perrin's presentation of the wines of Beaucastel, Domaines Perrin, and La Vieille Ferme to the Vineyard Brands sales team at their annual sales meeting. (I followed with a presentation of Tablas Creek). The wines were beautiful, and

Creating a new wine: Patelin de Tablas

A difficult economy brings problems, but it also brings opportunities. Over the last few years, we have been fortunate to see our sales continue to grow, thanks to the wonderful loyalty of our customers, an unprecedented run of great press, and lots of hard work by the wholesalers, restaurants, and

A post-harvest round table discussion with Tablas Creek's winemakers

Late last week, with harvest concluded and the winemaking team rested up after a long, grueling harvest, national sales manager Tommy Oldre caught up with them to talk about their 2010 harvest experience. In the video, you'll see winemakers Neil Collins, Ryan Hebert, and Chelsea Franchi each give

Harvest 2010 Recap and Assessment: Low Sugars, Good Yields and Great Flavors

Harvest 2010 is in the barn. Done. Finally. It was a late harvest all-around, about 3 weeks late at the beginning and 2 weeks at the end. We began harvest with a little Vermentino on September 16th, but didn't really get into significant picking until October. The 47