Esprit Club News & Updates

We are pleased to invite you to participate in our barrel tasting and sale en primeur of Tablas Creek Vineyard's remarkable wines from the outstanding 2024 vintage: Esprit de Tablas, Panoplie, and for the first time, our new Panoplie Blanc.

Offering wine en primeur is a time-honored French tradition most often associated with first-growth Bordeaux estates. In outstanding vintages, valued customers are offered the opportunity to secure a limited quantity of sought-after wines at a special price in advance of bottling. The wines will be available for delivery or pickup in fall 2026.

To RSVP to the En Primeur Tasting on December 6th: Proprietor Jason Haas and Executive Winemaker Neil Collins will host a live En Primeur tasting on December 6th. Join us for a discussion of the 2024 vintage and wines. RSVP by mail, phone, or online using this link.

To Order: Visit our Futures order page here.

To Taste: You may taste the wine on your own schedule by visiting our tasting room between October 31st and December 6th, and we will pour you the new Esprit and Panoplie. Book your tasting.

The 2024 Vintage:

The 2024 vintage began with our second consecutive wet winter, giving the vines good reserves for the growing season. After a normal budbreak and a cool first half of the summer, those reserves were tested by our warmest-ever July and above-average temperatures through October. That led to a compressed harvest that was largely done by the second week of October and yields roughly 20% below our long-term averages. The low yields and warm year combined to produce fruit with intense flavors and noteworthy vibrancy.

The Wines:

• 2024 Esprit de Tablas: Esprit de Tablas is Tablas Creek's signature red blend, always led by the dark red fruit, earth, spice and mid-palate richness of Mourvèdre (40%), along with additions of Syrah (27%), Grenache (20%), Counoise (5%), Vaccarèse (4%), and Cinsaut (4%). In this intense, low-yielding vintage, all the varieties thrived, and we had plenty of good options in our blending trials. The relatively high percentage of both Mourvèdre and Syrah gives the wine luscious fruit equally balanced between red and black, with plush texture, chewy tannins, and earthy elements like new leather and loam that hint at years of fascinating development.
• 2024 Panoplie: Panoplie is our elite Mourvèdre-based cuvée, made in the model of Château de Beaucastel's Hommage à Jacques Perrin and selected from the top 3% of lots that come into the cellar each vintage. Mourvèdre has a remarkable ability to age, adding meaty depth to dark medium fruit, without the hardness many ageworthy red grapes have in their youth. In 2024, we chose three exceptional lots of Mourvèdre to represent 58% of the wine. We then added two powerful lots of Syrah (20%) and one glorious lot of Grenache (22%). The resulting Panoplie allows the purity of the Mourvèdre fruit to shine.
• 2024 Panoplie Blanc: The high-quality but low-yielding 2024 vintage allowed us to make our first-ever Panoplie Blanc, dedicated to Beaucastel’s most important white grape, Roussanne, and like Panoplie made from the top 3% of our white lots. We identified three lots of Roussanne (making up 70% of the blend) and one each of Grenache Blanc (25%) and Picpoul Blanc (5%) that we thought had the requisite character and intensity. The resulting wine is powerful but lovely, very Roussanne in character, with flavors of crème brûlée and baked pear, a nice moderate dose of sweet oak, and appealing pithiness at the end.

We’re excited to introduce something new that makes your Tablas Creek VINsider membership even more valuable: The Wine Atlas Collective.

We’ve joined forces with seven other family-owned, sustainably-minded wineries from around the country to bring added benefits to all our club members. Starting July 1st, if you’re a VINsider, you’re a member everywhere in the Collective.

The Wine Atlas Collective is a group of eight independently operated, sustainably-minded wineries. As a member at any one of them, you’ll be welcomed as a member at them all.

Together, these wineries represent some of the best wine regions in the country and offer a uniquely diverse range of styles, with over 40 grape varieties represented. The wineries are:

• Blenheim Vineyards – Virginia
• Brooks – Oregon
• Frog’s Leap – Napa Valley
• L’Ecole № 41 – Washington
• Red Tail Ridge – New York (Finger Lakes)
• Ridge Vineyards – Sonoma & Santa Cruz Mountains
• William Chris Vineyards – Texas Hill Country
• Tablas Creek Vineyard – Paso Robles

Your VINsider membership now unlocks exclusive perks when you visit any of the other wineries in the Collective, including:

• Complimentary or discounted tastings
• Access to member-only wines
• Special hospitality when you visit
• Additional benefits coming later this year

Please note that these reciprocal benefits currently apply only to in-person visits.

Check out the Wine Atlas Collective website here.