2013 Grenache
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The 2013 Grenache is Tablas Creek’s seventh varietal bottling of the signature grape of the southern Rhone Valley. The wine shows the bright fruit and tangy acidity of the Grenache Noir grape, as well as the characteristic intensity of the 2013 vintage.
Tasting Notes
The 2013 Grenache is a pretty garnet color, with an appealing nose of surprisingly dark fruit for the usually red-fruited Grenache: black raspberry, plum, black pepper, sweet spice and milk chocolate. The mouth shows redder than the nose and is nicely balanced between sweeter and more savory flavors, with wild strawberry, new leather, and a little welcome mintiness. Good acids and youthful Grenache tannins hold everything together, and it all smooths out and shows more red fruit and chocolate on the finish. Drink now or over the next decade.
Updated tasting notes from a January 2023 vertical tasting can be found on the Tablas Creek blog.
Technical Details
Appellation
- Paso Robles
Technical Notes
- 15.5% Alcohol by Volume
- 670 Cases Produced
Blend
- 100% Grenache
Recipes & Pairings
Recipe Suggestions
Food Pairings
- Grilled steaks
- Pastas with meat sauces
- Rich beef stews
- Spicy sausages
Production Notes
We use most of our Grenache in our Esprit de Tablas and Côtes de Tablas blends each year. However, we feel that this is a grape whose bright fruit, spice and acidity lends itself well to bottling as a single-varietal wine as well. Grenache seems to improve more dramatically with vine age than any other grape we grow, and although we didn't produce our first single-varietal Grenache bottling until 2006, we have made one most years since.
The grapes for our 2013 Grenache were grown on our certified organic estate vineyard.
The 2013 vintage was a classic California vintage, warm and sunny, with added intensity from the low yields produced by our second consecutive drought year. The summer was consistently warm, without the heat spikes or cold stretches that can delay ripening, and resulted in an early harvest under near-perfect conditions. The net result was a blockbuster vintage, with excellent concentration and good freshness, that should offer both early appeal and the capacity to age. We harvested our Grenache between September 12th and October 7th.
The Grenache grapes were destemmed and then fermented using native yeasts in closed stainless steel and upright oak tanks. After two weeks, they were pressed and moved to neutral barrels to complete their fermentation. The Grenache lots were blended in May of 2014, aged for an additional year in a mix of stainless steel (to preserve freshness) and one 1200-gallon foudre (for depth), and bottled in April 2015.