VINsider News & Updates

We are pleased to invite you to participate in our twenty-first annual barrel tasting and sale en primeur of Tablas Creek Vineyard's remarkable wines from the outstanding 2023 vintage: Esprit de Tablas and Panoplie. 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 and subsequent general release. The wines will be available for delivery or pickup in fall 2025.

To RSVP to the En Primeur Tasting on December 7th: Proprietor Jason Haas and Executive Winemaker Neil Collins will host a live En Primeur tasting on December 7th. Join us for a discussion of the 2023 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 November 25th and December 16th, and we will pour you the new Esprit and Panoplie. Book your tasting.

The 2023 Vintage:

The 2023 vintage began with our wettest-ever winter, replenishing groundwater and delaying budbreak. It continued with our coolest growing season in more than a decade, which combined with the late start to produce a harvest roughly a month later than most recent years, beginning in mid-September and not concluding until mid-November. Warm, sunny weather starting in October allowed the later-ripening varieties to reach full maturity. The exceptionally long hangtime and gradual ripening combined to produce fruit with deep colors, remarkable intensity, and noteworthy vibrancy. We believe 2023 has all the hallmarks of a blockbuster year.

The Wines:

• 2023 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 (33%), along with additions of Syrah (31%), Grenache (26%), Cinsaut (6%), Vaccarèse (2%), and Counoise (2%). In this cool vintage, Syrah was particularly outstanding, and we ended our blending trials using our highest percentage ever in Esprit. This gives the wine a luscious darkness and noteworthy minerality, in roughly equal balance with the redder fruit and spicy brightness from the other grapes. It is deep and full-bodied, with ample fine-grained tannins and a
  finish of sweet spice and dark red fruit. It should drink well for two decades or more
• 2023 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 5% of lots that come into the cellar each vintage. In 2023, we chose two exceptional lots of Mourvèdre to represent 61% of the wine. We then added one
  powerful lot of Syrah (23%) and two lots of Grenache (16%). The resulting Panoplie allows the purity of the Mourvèdre fruit to shine with currant, black plum, sweet earth and Mourvèdre's characteristic chewy tannins. It should be great to lay down, though it's so tasty that it may be hard to keep away from it in its youth. Drink over the next 25-30 years.

The Fall 2024 VINsider Shipment

We are pleased to announce the Fall 2024 VINsider Club shipments, highlighted by the newest releases of Esprit de Tablas and Esprit de Tablas Blanc. But there's a lot more to this fall's shipment than these two wines. We have a (we think, really terrific) varietal wine, a rosé ready for the fall, the first wine in a new collection, and a smaller-production blend, our En Gobelet, made entirely from head-trained, dry-farmed vineyard blocks.

• 1 bottle of 2022 Esprit de Tablas (Our newly-released flagship red blend, based on Mourvedre, from the best lots of the vibrant 2022 vintage; 93-95 Wine Advocate, 93-95 Vinous)
• 1 bottle of 2022 Esprit de Tablas Blanc (Our newly-released flagship white blend, based on Roussanne, from the best lots of 2022; 94 Vinous; 93-95 Wine Advocate)
• 1 bottle of 2022 En Gobelet (Our blend sourced exclusively from dry-farmed, head-trained vineyard blocks; 92-94 Wine Advocate, 94 Vinous)
• 1 bottle of 2022 Grenache (Our small-production varietal bottling of the Rhone's most planted red grape, vibrant and juicy; 91-93 Wine Advocate, 92 Vinous, 95 BevX)
• 1 bottle of 2023 Grenache Blanc (Our varietal bottling of this lovely white Rhone with both richness and brightness; 93 Vinous)
• 1 bottle of 2022 Lignée de Tablas Hook Vineyard Grenache (Our first-ever red wine release in the Lignée de Tablas tier, single-vineyard wines from Tablas Creek clones. This powerful rendition of Grenache comes from the coastal Santa Lucia Highlands)

The Red Wine Selection Shipment, in addition to the three red wines in the Classic Shipment, includes:

• 1 bottle of 2018 Esprit de Tablas (A library vintage of our flagship wine from a a drought vintage similar to the 2022 Esprit de Tablas; 96 Vinous, 97 BevX, 96 Owen Bargreen)
• 1 bottle of 2022 Full Circle Pinot Noir (The tiny-production 100% Pinot Noir grown at founder Robert Haas's home in the cool Templeton Gap; 93 Vinous, 93 Wine Advocate)

The White Wine Selection Shipment, in addition to two white wines in the Classic Shipment, includes:

• 1 bottle of 2023 Picpoul Blanc (Our fifteenth varietal bottling of this traditional Southern Rhône white grape, notes of piña colada with a clean, bright finish)
• 1 bottle of 2023 Bourboulenc (The varietal bottling of one of our newest and rarest grapes, marmalade and citrus blossom notes with a long finish)
• 1 bottle of 2023 Lignée de Tablas Zaca Mesa Grenache Blanc (Our Lignée de Tablas tier, single-vineyard wines from Tablas Creek clones. This lovely rendition of Grenache Blanc comes from the Santa Ynez Valley AVA in Santa Barbar County)

Full tasting and production notes are available on the Tablas Creek blog.

To provide a new shipping address (an adult signature is required) or a new credit card you can email your changes to wineclub@tablascreek.com, call us at 805.237.1231 x236, or update your VINsider information online.

The classic (mixed) shipment’s cost of $256 plus applicable shipping and taxes, reflects as always a 20% VINsider member savings off the retail prices of the wines in the shipment. Shipments ship out beginning the week of October 15th unless you have made other arrangements with us. Will-call shipments will be available on September 20th for pickup at the winery.