2019 Tannat
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The Tablas Creek Vineyard 2019 Tannat is Tablas Creek’s eighteenth bottling of this traditional varietal from South-West France, known principally in the Pyrenees foothills appellation of Madiran, but originally native to the Basque region. Tannat typically has intense fruit, spice, and tannins that produce wines capable of long aging.
Tasting Notes
A lovely juicy blackcurrant and sweet licorice nose, given lift and definition with spicy juniper and alpine forest notes. On the palate, mouth-filling flavors of black cherry, sweet tobacco, and dark chocolate, lots of chalky tannic structure but the friendliness and fruit to carry that even in its youth. A long, plushly tannic finish of bittersweet chocolate and brambly blackberry completes the experience. A Tannat to make new friends and converts for the grape. Drink any time over the next two decades.
Technical Details
Appellation
- Adelaida District Paso Robles
Technical Notes
- 14.0% Alcohol by Volume
- 1179 Cases Produced
Blend
- 100% Tannat
Recipes & Pairings
Recipe Suggestions
Food Pairings
- Game stews
- Pepper steak
- Szechuan beef
- Duck breast
Production Notes
When we imported our Châteauneuf du Pape clones, the Perrins’ French nurseryman included Tannat cuttings because he believed the grape would thrive in the rocky limestone soils of Paso Robles. We have planted 3.5 acres of Tannat, and it has indeed thrived here.
Our Tannat grapes are grown on our organic and biodynamic estate vineyard.
The 2019 vintage began with ample rainfall the preceding winter. The wet soils delayed budbreak to a little after normal, and a cool first half of the summer delayed flowering and the ripening of our earlier varieties. Beginning the second week of July, the weather turned warm but never so warm to engage the vines' self-defense mechanism of shutting down, accelerating ripening of our later varieties and producing intense flavors. The resulting compressed harvest was completed under ideal conditions and the vintage shows both concentration and freshness, with bright acids framing ample fruit.
The Tannat grapes were destemmed and fermented using native yeasts. We aged it in one foudre and a mix of new and older smaller barrels for nearly 2 years before bottling it in April 2021, and then aged it another 10 months in bottle before release.