Our Wines
Tablas Creek is a pioneer of California's Rhône movement. Below you'll find information on the Rhône-inspired wines we make, the people who make them, and the grapes we use. We also share different ways to find the wine you're looking for, what to expect from a bottle you have in your cellar, and how to explore our library of the 500+ wines we've made since 1997.
Shop Tablas Creek
If what you're really here to do is buy our wine, that's great. And thank you! We have the most complete selection of our wines available on our shop page, including 15-20 wines that aren't distributed outside the winery.
If you're looking for what Tablas Creek wines might be available near you, we have built a Find Our Wines widget where you can enter your location and see what restaurants and retailers have purchased Tablas Creek near you in the last six months. We do recommend that you contact the account to make sure that they still have the wines in stock, as all we can vouch for is that they purchased them, not that they still have them on their shelves or list.
Explore the Tablas Creek Wine Library
Since our first vintage in 1997 we have made more than 500 wines, from flagship blends to varietal bottlings to wine club exclusives and one-off experiments. We have every one of these wines in an archive that you can browse by year, wine name, style, or category. Each wine's page includes vintage and winemaking information, technical and tasting notes, and press that the wine received.
You can explore the archive.
Vintage Chart
For those of you with bottles of Tablas Creek in your cellar, we maintain a vintage chart with our recommendations as to whether to drink or hold, for all our wines going back to 2000.
But it's not just a binary question. We try to further break the wine's status down into early, peak, and late maturity to give you a sense of the window you have, as well as identifying when wines are in a "closed" phase and will likely be better in the future.
The Tiers of Tablas Creek Wines
In a normal year, we make 25-30 wines encompassing a range of blends, varietal wines, and stylistic explorations of our Rhône varieties. The main categories we make each year include:
Esprit de Tablas
Our flagship blends, chosen from the cellar's best lots
Modeled consciously on the red and white wines of Château de Beaucastel.
- Selected from the top 15-20% of the estate grown lots each vintage
- Aged in 1200-gallon foudres for an extended period to allow the wines to integrate and deepen
- Both Esprit de Tablas and Esprit de Tablas Blanc will age for two decades or longer
- Esprit de Tablas (until 2011 Esprit de Beaucastel) red is based on Mourvedre, with additions of the best lots of our other red grapes
- Esprit de Tablas Blanc (until 2011 Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc) is based on Roussanne, with additions of the best lots of our other white grapes
Cotes de Tablas
Californian takes on Rhône classics
Blended from the Rhône's most famous grapes to be lushly fruity and compelling
- 100% estate grown fruit
- Lots chosen for their charm and approachability, ready to drink sooner than our Esprits, yet ageworthy for a decade or more
- Cotes de Tablas red is based on Grenache, with additions of Syrah, Counoise, and Mourvedre, aged in 1200-gallon French oak foudres
- Cotes de Tablas Blanc is based on Viognier, with additions of Marsanne, Grenache Blanc and Roussanne, aged in stainless steel
Patelin de Tablas
Our "neighborhood" wine
Incorporating fruit from some of Paso Robles' top Rhône-style vineyards
- Patelin is French slang for "neighborhood".
- Sourced from 8-12 Paso Robles Rhône-style vineyards, most planted with cuttings from the Tablas Creek nursery and all farmed organically
- Wines made at Tablas Creek in the same way as our estate wines, using native yeast fermentation and careful blending
- Patelin de Tablas red is based on Syrah, with additions of Grenache, Mourvedre, and Counoise, aged in 1500-gallon French oak
- Patelin de Tablas Blanc is based on Grenache Blanc, with additions of Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne, and Clairette Blanche, aged in stainless steel
- Patelin de Tablas Rosé is based on direct-pressed Grenache, with additions of Mourvedre, Counoise, and Vermentino, aged in stainless steel
Lignée de Tablas
Single-vineyard expressions from Tablas Creek clones
Highlighting the heritage of Tablas clones planted over the last quarter-century in some of California's top vineyards
- Lignée is French slang for "lineage"
- Sourced from 2-3 vineyards around California each year, farmed organically and planted to cuttings from the Tablas Creek nursery
- Wines made at Tablas Creek in the same way as our estate wines, using native yeast fermentation and careful blending
- Bottled as single-vineyard expressions with the vineyard featured on the front label
Limited Release and Varietal Wines
A collection of small-production wines which changes each vintage
Most available only to wine club members and/or winery-direct
- Small production blends include three high-end wine club exclusives: Panoplie, En Gobelet, and Le Complice
- Our unique Mourvedre-based dry rosé Dianthus, made entirely from estate fruit
- Depending on what the vintage gives us, we bottle as many as fifteen 100% varietal wines, to showcase the unique character of grapes more often found in blends
- Exceptional vintages allow us to produce small amounts of Vin de Paille, using a traditional French technique to dry grape clusters on straw and produce compelling sweet wines
Our Grapes
Over the last four decades, we have imported all fourteen grape varieties approved in Châteauneuf-du-Pape from our partners at Château de Beaucastel, as well as four others used in nearby appellations.
We have done deep dives into the history of each of these grapes, as well as how they grow in the vineyard and how they express themselves in the winery. This archive includes the stories of both our original 1989 imports (Mourvèdre, Syrah, Grenache, Counoise, Roussanne, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Picpoul, Tannat, and Vermentino) and our 2003 imports (Clairette, Bourboulenc, Vaccarese, Cinsaut, Picardan, Muscardin, and Terret Noir). You can explore each grape's story.
Our Winemaking
At Tablas Creek, our winemaking is all built around preserving the wine’s expression of its grape varieties, its vintage and its character of place. Because we believe that the particular collection of yeasts that exists at our vineyard is a unique component of our terroir, we use only native yeasts in fermentation and while we ferment and age most of our wines in oak, our use of new oak is minimal.
A key to our winemaking is our blending process. Both red and white wines are kept in their component pieces until blending in the spring. Blending allows us to highlight the year's best characteristics, while maintaining a consistent thread of character in each wine. You can read more about our winemaking and our winemaking team.
