2021 Counoise
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The 2021 Tablas Creek Vineyard Counoise is Tablas Creek’s twelvth varietal bottling of this traditional blending grape from the Southern Rhone. The Counoise grape has an unusual combination of vibrant blue and purple fruit (blueberries and cranberries), sweet spice (nutmeg and cinnamon), light-to-medium body, bright acidity, ruby color, and soft tannin.
Tasting Notes
A lovely translucent garnet color. Very fresh on the nose, with aromas of raspberry and leafy herbs. The palate is exuberantly juicy, and lively, with plum and earth and vibrant acids. A pretty and intriguing wine that's refreshing, like a glass of springtime. Enjoy it lightly chilled any time in the next six to eight years.
Technical Details
Appellation
- Adelaida District Paso Robles
Technical Notes
- 13.0% Alcohol by Volume
- 265 Cases Produced
Blend
- 100% Counoise
Certifications
Recipes & Pairings
Recipe Suggestions
Food Pairings
- Roast pork loin
- Veal
- Roasted Chicken
- Spicy sausages
Production Notes
Our Counoise grapes were grown on our Regenertative Organic Certified™ and biodynamic estate vineyard. We typically use most of this Counoise in our Esprit de Tablas and Côtes de Tablas wines. However, in years when Counoise spends an unusually long time on the vine, it achieves enough concentration to balance its exuberant fruit, spice and acidity and we bottle it on its own.
The 2021 vintage came after a chilly, relatively dry winter, the exception being a single storm that dropped more than a foot of rain on us in late January. The cold, dry winter produced a fruit set with smaller clusters and smaller berries, and yields were down about 25% compared to our average. The growing season was ideal, with each hot stretch followed by a cool period that allowed the vines to recover, and that combined with the low yields to produce some of our most intense fruit ever and our highest average acids since the chilly 2011 vintage. We believe that 2021 has all the hallmarks of a blockbuster year.
We tend to ferment our Counoise lots in stainless steel to protect it from oxidation, and to age it in neutral oak to avoid weighing down its bright fruit flavors. The lots that we chose for our varietal Counoise were selected and blended in June 2022 and bottled in February 2023, under screwcap to preserve its freshness.