2016 Mourvèdre
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The 2016 Tablas Creek Vineyard Mourvèdre is Tablas Creek’s thirteenth varietal bottling of Mourvèdre, from the 2016 vintage. We use most of our Mourvèdre in our Esprit de Tablas each year. However, we feel that the Mourvèdre grape, often pigeonholed as a blending varietal, can produce remarkable varietal wines, and when we have particularly characteristic lots of Mourvèdre, we try to reserve a limited quantity for a single-varietal bottling.
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91 Points; "light to medium-bodied with crunchy red fruits, finishing long, spicy and refreshing.": Wine Advocate (Oct. 2019)
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92 points; "Relatively light in the glass, this true Mourvèdre bottling shows black raspberry and a strong rocky minerality on the nose": Wine Enthusiast (Feb. 2019)
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94 points; "Full-bodied and perfectly balanced with a opulent texture": BevX (Oct. 2018)
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Outstanding/Outstanding Plus; "Flavorful and rounded with a nice underlying crispness": Underground Wine Letter (Oct. 2018))
Tasting Notes
The 2016 Mourvèdre shows a spicy, meaty nose of juniper, red currant, soy marinade, cocoa powder, and new leather. The palate is tangy with flavors of plum skin, baker's chocolate, mint, and meat drippings. Chewy tannins and sweet spice linger on the finish. It’s delicious now, and we expect it only to become more profound with age, as its flavors deepen, the tannins soften, and the meatiness that's lurking behind the fruit comes to the fore.
Technical Details
Appellation
- Adelaida District Paso Robles
Technical Notes
- 12.5% Alcohol by Volume
- 825 Cases Produced
Blend
- 100% Mourvedre
Recipes & Pairings
Recipe Suggestions
Food Pairings
- Richly flavored stews
- Pork chops with fruit reduction
- Asian preparation of red meats (i.e., beef stir fry)
- Bittersweet chocolate desserts
Production Notes
Our Mourvèdre grapes were grown on our 120-acre certified organic and biodynamic estate vineyard.
The 2016 vintage, while still marked by drought, saw better rainfall than the four previous years, and the vineyards showed good health through most of the growing season. That season started with a very early budbreak and continued warm weather spurred our earliest-ever beginning to harvest, on August 18th. But beginning mid-August, three cool weeks slowed the ripening for all but our earliest grapes, and allowed them to reach flavor and phenolic maturity with slightly above-average hang time. The resulting vintage shows excellent concentration but also remarkable vibrancy, with electric acids framing appealing juiciness.
The Mourvèdre grapes were destemmed and then fermented using native yeasts in a balance of small open-top and enclosed stainless steel tanks. After three weeks, they were pressed and moved to 1200-gallon foudres to complete their fermentation. The Mourvèdre lots were blended in May of 2017, aged for an additional year in foudre and bottled in August 2018.