2017 Esprit de Tablas Blanc
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The Tablas Creek Vineyard 2017 Esprit de Tablas Blanc is a blend of five estate-grown varietals, propagated from budwood cuttings from the Château de Beaucastel estate. Roussanne provides the core richness, minerality, and flavors of honey and spice, while Grenache Blanc adds green apple and anise flavors, a lush mouthfeel and bright acids. Picpoul Blanc adds pineapple brightness and saline minerality. This is the first vintage incorporating two new varieties to the blend. Picardan brings elegance while Clairette Blanche is crisp and gently citrusy.
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"Of the 2,108 Wines I Tasted This Year, These 10 Were the Best": Elin McCoy, Bloomberg (Dec. 2020)
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92 Points Cellar Selection; "There's a good sizzle of acidity to the sip": Wine Enthusiast (Nov. 2020)
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94 Points; "Powerful yet graceful, displaying sharp focus and minerally thrust on an impressively long finish": Vinous (Feb. 2020)
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95 Points; "One of California’s great white whites": Grapelive (Feb. 2020)
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95 Points; #28 Wine of 2019; "simply stunning Rhone style white wine": Washington Wine Blog (Dec. 2019)
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92 Points; "Medium to full-bodied with intense honeyed flavors in the mouth, it has great juicy acidity to counter and a long, gently textured finish.": Wine Advocate (Oct. 2019)
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94 Points; "Medium to full-bodied and perfectly balanced with a rich but vibrant texture.": BevX (Oct. 2019)
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Extraordinary; "Complex and lingering on the finish this is a unique and stunning wine": The Underground Wineletter (Oct. 2019)
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92-94 Points; "Its medium gold color is followed by a full-bodied, layered, beautifully textured white": Jeb Dunnuck (Nov. 2018)
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93-94 Points; "Shows impressive depth as well as nerviness on the finish, which hangs on with strong, mineral-dominated persistence.”: Vinous (Sept. 2018)
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92-94 Points; "a full-bodied, gourmand palate that avoids any excess.": Wine Advocate (May 2018)
Tasting Notes
A spicy, deep Roussanne nose of wildflower honey, cedar spice, jasmine, and Asian pear. The mouth shows flavors of baked pear, cinnamon stick, and brioche, all deepened by a little sweet oak. The wine's rich texture is balanced by nice acids and a saline mineral note on the finish. A powerful Esprit Blanc that we expect to go out two decades, gaining additional nuttiness and complexity over the years.
Updated tasting notes from a July 2020 vertical tasting can be found on the Tablas Creek blog.
Technical Details
Appellation
- Adelaida District Paso Robles
Technical Notes
- 13.0% Alcohol by Volume
- 2250 Cases Produced
Blend
- 68% Roussanne
- 17% Grenache Blanc
- 7% Picpoul Blanc
- 4% Picardan
- 4% Clairette Blanche
Recipes & Pairings
Recipe Suggestions
Food Pairings
- Cooked shellfish (lobster, softshell crab, shrimp)
- Roasted or grilled vegetables (eggplant, asparagus, peppers)
- Foods cooked with garlic and olive oil
- Rich fish dishes (i.e., salmon, swordfish)
- Asian stir fry
Production Notes
The 2017 vintage saw our drought end with a bang, as we received 43 inches of rain and saw our rainiest month ever in January. The wet soils delayed budbreak to a normal timeframe, and produced such a healthy vineyard that we saw canopy sizes and cane lengths we hadn’t seen in years. The summer began relatively cool, but was punctuated by two heat spikes, one in early July and the other in late August, that accelerated ripening and produced intense flavors. The resulting vintage shows the health of the vines with a combination of concentration and freshness, with bright acids framing powerful fruit.
The grapes for our Esprit de Tablas Blanc were grown on our certified organic and biodynamic estate vineyard.
The fruit was whole cluster pressed, and fermented with native yeasts. The Roussanne was fermented in neutral oak of various sizes: 60-gallon oak barrels, 170-gallon demi-muids, and 1200-gallon foudres. The Grenache Blanc was fermented in stainless steel and also in one foudre, and the Picpoul Blanc, Clairette Blanche, and Picardan were fermented in stainless steel and a little neutral wood. All the wines went through malolactic fermentation. The Esprit Blanc was selected from the vintage's best lots, blended, and returned to foudre in April 2018, and aged an additional 8 months in foudre until its bottling in December 2018 and letting it rest an additional 9 months in bottle before release.