The Data

Country   USA

Appellation   Adelaida District

Varietal   Roussanne

Retail Price   $40

ABV   12%

Score   4.5 Stars/95 points

In the Glass

Brilliant, medium green/gold color.

The aromatics are intense, offering scents of quince and Asian pear with supporting notes of lemon curd, honeycomb, candied ginger, and jasmine.

The palate confirms the nose delivering a ripe orchard fruits-driven core with flavors of guava, pear, white peach, and kiwi. The finish is long with subtle oak and floral accents.

Medium-bodied and perfectly balanced with a vibrant 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 $40 a bottle it won't make anyone's bargain list but when you consider the quality and the rarity (fewer than 1,000 cases made) of this wine we find it to be a value.

Analysis

This 2020 bottling of Roussanne is Tablas Creek's 20th bottling of this staple of France's Rhône region and it’s our favorite to date. Roussanne is most often blended with other varietals and is rarely offered as a single varietal and even Tablas Creek uses most of their Roussanne in their Esprit de Tablas. The 2020 vintage began with a cool spring and below-normal temperatures continued through July. Come August the weather became hot accelerating ripening and concentrating flavors. Their 2020 Roussanne came mostly from foudre (large, neutral wood vats) with about 35% from neutral oak puncheons, and 10% in small new barriques. These wines were blended in April 2021 and aged together in foudre until bottling in December. It’s a brilliant Roussanne with great aging potential.

How to Enjoy

Serve chilled with complex seafood stews, grilled fish, or medium-hot curries. Roussanne has a sneaky way of evolving over time in the bottle being one of the better white varietals for aging. Save a bottle for a minimum of five years.