Reviews

Wine Advocate (Aug. 2006)
San Luis Obispo Tribune (October 2005)

HOW IS IT DRINKING?
Vintage Chart

The 2003 Tablas Creek Vineyard Vin de Paille Sacrérouge is Tablas Creek's first bottling of this traditional Mediterranean technique for producing dessert wines. Ripe grape bunches are carefully laid down on straw-covered benches in our greenhouses, and allowed to dehydrate in the sun. When the grapes reach the desired concentration (usually in about 3 weeks) they are destemmed and fermented in small open-top fermenters using only native yeasts. When they reach their desired level of extraction, we press them and move the juice to oak barrels to continue fermenting until it reaches an alcohol level where the sweetness of the wine is in balance with its acids, tannins, and mineral characteristics.

As with all our wines, the grapes for our Vin de Paille were grown on our 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.

The 2003 Vin de Paille Sacrerouge is made from 100% Mourvedre grapes. We also made a two white vins de paille in 2003: a Vin de Paille blend of Viognier, Grenache Blanc, and Marsanne, and our 100% Roussanne Vin de Paille "Quintessence".

The 2003 vintage was tremendous: warm and sunny, with cool nights that prolonged the hangtime of the grapes and led to wines with excellent acidity. A relatively early flowering, combined with a warm but not overly hot summer produced unusually long hangtime, and grapes with concentrated flavors and a distinct minerality. The extended harvest meant that we harvested varietals multiple times, with Mourvedre (as usual our latest-ripening red varietal) harvested between September 25th and October 29th. The grapes for the Sacrerouge were among our last harvested, and spent much of the month of November in our greenhouses.

The wine, after pressing, was aged in three new French oak barrels for 20 months before being bottled in May of 2005.

The 2003 Vin de Paille Sacrérouge has a sweet nose of dates, plums, and figs, with dark cherries, cassis and chocolate in the mouth. The finish is sweet and long with lingering fig, chocolate, and mineral notes.