The Data

Country   USA

Appellation   Adelaida District

Varietal   White Blend

Retail Price   $25

ABV   13%

Score   4.5 Stars/95 points

In the Glass

Brilliant, medium gold/green color.

The nose is moderately intense offering scents of pear and white peach with supporting notes of green apple, spring flowers, kumquat, and wild mint.

The palate echoes the nose delivering a ripe orchard fruits-driven core with flavors of ripe orchard fruits with citrus, pineapple, and grapefruit. The finish is long and lingering with citrus zest and green apple skin.

Medium-bodied and perfectly balanced with a vibrant yet generous texture.

Cool Factor

Tablas Creek is a unique winery in California seamlessly marrying Old World and New World winemaking and setting the standard for Rhône varietals in California. What could be cooler?

Value Grade

Selling at $25 a bottle this California-made and Rhône-inspired white checks all of the boxes for accessibility, complexity, and pure hedonistic pleasure. It's a bargain in our book.

Analysis

This complex and delicious white is a careful blend of five varietals: 48% Grenache Blanc, 22% Viognier, 12% Marsanne, 13% Roussanne, and 5% Clairette Blanche. I greatly appreciate that the trio of Tablas Creek (white and red Patelin de Tablas, Côtes de Tablas, and Esprit de Tablas) Rhône-inspired blends are not simply an ascending ladder of prices of oak treatments rather each expression is a unique blend. All varietals for the Patelin Blanc were whole-cluster pressed and fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel tanks to preserve the fresh and crisp fruit flavors.

How to Enjoy

Sip chilled in a glass as an aperitif or pair it with both simple and complex seafood dishes, poultry, and most anything in a lemon sauce.