Panoplie 2007 Included in Spring 2010 VINsider Club Shipment The 2007 Panoplie, our highest-ever rated wine, is one of six wines in the spring 2010 wine club shipment. The wine received 96-98 points from Robert Parker and the comments "about as good as a Rhône Ranger blend can be... Full-bodied with a multilayered texture, super-sweet tannin, good underlying freshness, and an opulent, even voluptuous finish". We believe it is the most powerful, longest-lived wine that we have ever made. Learn more about the VINsider Wine Club. 2006 Esprit de Beaucastel: Wine Spectator's #50 Wine of 2009 We are thrilled that the 2006 Esprit de Beaucastel made an appearance at #50 on the Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of 2009. We're particularly pleased that this is not your typical reviewer-friendly fruit bomb: it is a wine with noteworthy elegance, with overt minerality and great balance, and should reward time in the cellar. As always, members of the VINsider wine club received early access to this wine in the fall 2008 club shipment. The wine was also available to VINsiders en primeur at a 30% discount in the fall of 2007.

Tablas Creek Vineyard was founded by the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel and Robert Haas, longtime importer and founder of Vineyard Brands. They chose the hilly Las Tablas district of west Paso Robles for its similarities to Châteauneuf du Pape: limestone soils, a favorable climate, and rugged terrain.

The partners imported the traditional varietals grown on the Perrins' celebrated estate, including Mourvèdre, Grenache Noir, Syrah, and Counoise for reds, and Roussanne, Viognier, Picpoul Blanc, Marsanne, and Grenache Blanc for whites. These imported vines were propagated in our on-site nursery. All Tablas Creek wines are estate grown and organically farmed.

Tablas Creek follows the centuries-old Châteauneuf du Pape tradition of blending chosen varietals, which produces wines that are more complex, better balanced, and richer than single varietal wines. Each varietal is hand-harvested when completely ripe and fermented separately. Winemaking, including native yeast fermentation and neutral French oak barrels, preserves the wines' ties to their soil, climate, and varietal character.

Our signature wines are the Esprit de Beaucastel, based on Mourvedre, and the Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc, based on Roussanne. These wines are rich, balanced, and ageable, and should reward time in bottle to mature.

Beginning in 2000 with the red and 2002 with the whites, we began producing our Côtes de Tablas, based on Grenache and Côtes de Tablas Blanc, based on Viognier. These wines are blended for clean, bright fruit and spice flavors, and should be ready to drink younger.

We have notes on our four single varietal examples of the core grape varieties in our blends. All are available in limited national release. These wines include the Roussanne and Grenache Blanc, as well as the Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. We also have notes on our terrific dry Rosé.

We are proud to make available, exclusively from the winery, wines such as our Panoplie, made only in great years in the style of Beaucastel's Hommage a Jacques Perrin. Other wines include the Las Tablas Estates Glenrose Vineyard, our Counoise, Viognier, Vermentino, Tannat, Picpoul Blanc, Antithesis Chardonnay, and our three dessert wines: Vin de Paille, Roussanne Vin de Paille "Quintessence", and Mourvedre Vin de Paille "Sacrerouge".

The Panoplie and all our other winery exclusives are available exclusively online through the TCV Wine Shop, or by visiting the Tablas Creek Vineyard winery.

Many of these wines, as well as pre-release items and special cuvées, are available through the Tablas Creek VINsider Wine Club.

If you have a bottle of Tablas Creek, and are interested in knowing how it's drinking before you open yours, you're encouraged to review our vintage chart, updated several times each year as we taste through our current and library vintages.