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2020 Esprit de Tablas Blanc Bottle

2020 Esprit de Tablas Blanc

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The Tablas Creek Vineyard 2020 Esprit de Tablas Blanc is our flagship white blend, chosen from the top lots of six white Rhone varieties 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, lush mouthfeel and bright acids. Picpoul Blanc adds pineapple brightness and saline minerality, Bourboulenc provides limestoney, citrusy lift, Clairette Blanche brings clean fruitiness and chalky minerality, and Picardan finishes with a little burst of acid, further emphasizing the mineral notes.

Reviews coming soon

Tasting Notes

An immediately appealing nose of poached pear and baked quince, vanilla custard and nutmeg spice. On the palate, lovely and long, with Roussanne-driven flavors of beeswax and preserved lemon, rounded out by just a hint of sweet oak. Fresh and lifted, but long and textured. A charming Esprit Blanc that will be hard to resist young but which should also do beautifully with time in the cellar. Drink over the next two decades.

Technical Details

Appellation

  • Adelaida District Paso Robles

Technical Notes

  • 13.0% Alcohol by Volume
  • 1880 Cases Produced

Blend

  • 46% Roussanne
  • 28% Grenache Blanc
  • 14% Picpoul Blanc
  • 5% Bourboulenc
  • 4% Clairette Blanche
  • 3% Picardan

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 2020 vintage began benignly, with a cool spring that delayed budbreak to a little after normal, and below-average temperatures continued through July. Beginning in August, the weather turned hot, accelerating ripening and producing intense flavors. The state's terrible fires stayed well north of us, and the harvest finished early, under a compressed timeline but good conditions. The vintage shows concentrated flavors, noteworthy lushness, and lovely spice.

The grapes for our Esprit de Tablas Blanc were grown on our certified organic and biodynamic estate vineyard.

Roussanne (46%, fermented in a mix of oak of various sizes and ages) still takes pride of place, but the different higher-acid, more mineral varieties (28% Grenache Blanc, 14% Picpoul Blanc, 5% Bourboulenc, 4% Clairette Blanche and 3% Picardan) all add citrusy acidity and saline freshness. This marks the first time all six of the approved white varieties from Chateauneuf-du-Pape have appeared in the Esprit Blanc. As we have done since 2012, we returned the blend to foudre after it was assembled in April 2021 and aged it through the subsequent harvest before bottling it in December 2021 and letting it rest an additional 9 months in bottle before release.

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