2009 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc

DATE CONSUMED

Friday, March 27, 2013

VINTAGE

2009

WINERY/PRODUCER

Tablas Creek Vineyard

WINE NAME

Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc

TYPE OF WINE

White blend

COMPOSITION

62% Roussanne, 26% Grenache Blanc, 12% Picpoul Blanc

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.5%

PRICE PAID

Retail: $40.00

Wine Club Price $30.40

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle with our bi-annual Tablas Creek wine club shipment in October, 2010

BOUQUET

We decanted this wine about 15 minutes before drinking/serving with dinner to encourage the wine’s bouquet to blossom because Tablas Creek’s wine’s are famous for greatly benefiting from decanting, cellaring, and savoring over good food.

This wine has an almost Chablis-like nose, exhibiting an earthy chalkiness, along with tropical and Autumn fruits (like pears and apples), along with white flowers. 

 

TASTING NOTES

This is a lovely Southern Rhone-style white blend.  The almost 2/3-worth of Roussanne contributes to the wine’s medium-bodied heft, along with the wine’s creaminess, richness, tropical fruits, and waxiness.  The Grenache Blanc and Picpoul Blanc contribute a zingy zippiness (aka acidity, stoniness, and minerality), along with added depth-of-flavors.

This is a wonderful summer/spring-time white blend.  I enjoy a good Chardonnay, Riesling, and/or Sauvignon Blanc (to name just a few) as much as the next guy, but I absolutely LOVE a good, quality, well-made blend (bubbly, rose, white, and/or red).  This is one of the best white blends I’ve had all year; it has a nice, floral, fruity nose, along with a creamy, stony, minerally, tropical and citrusy flavor profile.  This wine would be very nice as an aperitif but it is SO food-friendly that I would stick to serving this wine with quality food.

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with my world-famous salmon steaks spiced with freshly-cracked sea salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence.  This wine paired beautifully with the salmon; the rich/creamy components of the Roussanne complemented the fish’s rich, creamy, fattiness while the Grenache and Picpoul Blancs’ zippy acidity complemented/counter-balanced the exact same qualities of the salmon (rich, creamy, fattiness). 

This is a very food-friendly/versatile white blend.  It paired perfectly with the salmon and would also pair equally well with other rich and/or lean seafoods like scallops, lobster, clams, oysters, crab, etc.  I believe it would also pair well with linguine in clam sauce, as well as most chicken dishes (roast, fried, and/or broiled).  Quite frankly, this wine is so versatile it would pair well with just about anything other than red meats and pastas with cream and/or tomato sauces.

AGING POTENTIAL

This wine is drinking beautifully right now though I’m not sure it has the “legs” to last much longer.  According to Tablas Creek’s vintage chart, this wine is in an “early maturity” stage, meaning it has years to go before reaching peak maturity.  Frankly and honestly (do I speak/think/write any other way?!?!), I believe Tablas Creek is a bit optimistic about their white wine’s aging potential.  We’ve had other white wines that they classified as “early maturity” that I felt were VERY near their peak maturity (and perhaps even a bit past).  If you have this wine in your cellar, I would drink it before the end of the year.  According to Tablas Creek, this wine should last another four or five years (or more).  Since we all could die within the next moment or two, I would drink this wine quite soon.  How tragic would it be to die with cases of fantastic, well-aged, ready-to-drink wines in your cellar that haven’t been drunk yet?!?!  Exactly………..

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

91 Points

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.tablascreek.com/