2008 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, June 9, 2013

VINTAGE

2008

WINERY/PRODUCER

Tablas Creek Vineyard

WINE NAME

Esprit de Beaucastel

TYPE OF WINE

Red blend

COMPOSITION

38% Mourvedre, 30% Grenache, 26% Syrah, 6% Counoise

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

Estate grown and bottled

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

Paso Robles, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.5%

PRICE PAID

$38 (excluding tax and shipping) ($50 full retail)

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We received this bottle directly from the winery with our regular wine club shipment in October, 2010

BOUQUET

This wine has a very nice, fruity, floral, spicy, earthy, ever-so-slightly oaky bouquet, with an emphasis on herbs and spices, dark fruit, violets, and that lovely Paso Robles earthiness/terrior.

TASTING NOTES

This is a fantastic Rhone-style G-S-M/Chateauneuf-du-Pape red blend.  The first thing that impresses me the most about this wine is its chalky/clay/limestone earthiness that practically jumps out of the glass.  After the fabulous soil/”dirty” characteristics, wonderful red and dark fruit elements shine brightly, especially the plum, blackberry, black cherry, and raspberry flavors, followed closely by gorgeous herbs and spices (TONS of black pepper and acres of savory herbs like thyme, rosemary, sage, and lavender).

This is a wonderfully well-balanced red blend, with smooth, sweet, silky tannins, the perfect amount of oak, acidity, and alcohol, along with a gorgeous, long, lingering finish.  We actually drank a half bottle (375 ml.) of 2009 Domaine du Pere Caboche Chateauneuf du Pape before we drank this Tablas Creek bottle with dinner and it was VERY interesting how closely the earthiness, fruitiness, and spiciness paralleled each other.  Paso Robles shares quite a few characteristics/elements with Chateauneuf du Pape, which is exactly why Robert Haas and the Perrin family founded Tablas Creek in Paso Robles, assuming/knowing/betting-on that Paso could produce world-class “New World” versions of Chateauneuf du Pape blends along with single-varietal bottlings.  Boy-oh-boy, did their homework/assumptions/research pay dividends!!!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with Arthur’s fabulous rack-of-lamb, encrusted with panko bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, mustard, and spices.  This wine paired PERFECTLY with the lamb and would also pair well with a well-seasoned ribeye, lamb chops, prime rib, and just about any red meat dish.

AGING POTENTIAL

Tablas Creek’s vintage chart on their website (where every wine they’ve EVER made is categorized by the wine’s drinkability (too young, early maturity, peak maturity, late maturity, closed phase (hold), and past its prime)) lists this wine as “early maturity,” meaning this wine is drinking well right now but will continue to age and mature beautifully for another 10 to 20 years (TC’s Esprit de Beaucastel and their flagship blend “Panoplie” are famous for drinking well for the first few years after bottling and then during the (in bottle) maturing process goes though a closed/shut-down  phase about 3 or 4 (or more) years after bottling).  This wine does indeed have the structure/backbone to age for decades, but at 5-years-old, it’s about to enter it’s “closed/hold” phase, so either drink this wine now or assume it will be in a “closed/hold” phase for a few years and won’t be ideally “drinkable” until 2016 or so.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

92

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

GOOD – EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.tablascreek.com/