The Data

Country   USA

Appellation   Adelaida District

Varietal   Red Blend

Retail Price   $70

ABV   13.5%

Score   5 Stars/97 points

In the Glass

Brilliant, medium ruby color.

The aromatics are intense, offering scents of boysenberry, blackberry, and forest floor with supporting notes of black currant, cigar box, tomato leaf, raspberry, and pomegranate.

The palate echoes the nose delivering a red and black fruits-driven core with flavors of blackberry, red currant, earth, cured meat, and dark chocolate. The finish is long and lingering with chewy tannins.

Full-bodied and perfectly balanced with a meaty texture.

Cool Factor

Tablas Creek is a unique winery in California seamlessly marrying Old World and New World winemaking with beautiful Paso Robles fruit. They have set the standard for Rhône varietals in California. What could be cooler?

Value Grade

This is a wine for an occasion. It's pure class and worthy of aging and enjoying with your dearest friends so we find it to be a relative value in today's market.

Analysis

The 2022 Esprit de Tablas is a charming and nuanced Châteauneuf du Pape tribute created in Paso Robles by Tablas Creek. This is Tablas Creek’s flagship red blend, and it never fails to impress. It’s crafted with 40% Mourvedre, 28% Grenache, 22% Syrah, 4% Vaccarese, 3% Counoise, and 3% Cinsaut. The blend changes from vintage to vintage, but the Esprit de Tablas is always led by Mourvedre. While being a wine of the vintage, this wine is incredibly consistent, never failing to rate at 96 points or greater in our 10 years of evaluations. The 2022 vintage was their third year of drought, but fortunately, the rain that did fall came early in the season. The cluster counts were down about 15%, and the overall yields for the vintage were quite low, resulting in concentrated and intense fruit. The Esprit de Tablas grapes were grown on its certified organic and biodynamic estate vineyard. They were fermented with native yeasts in wooden, upright, 1,500-gallon fermenters and closed stainless steel tanks. The best lots were blended in June 2023 and then rested in 1,200-gallon foudres before bottling in July 2023. This wine will only get better with time in the cellar — leave it for at least a decade.

How to Enjoy

This intense wine really needs to be decanted to be fully enjoyed. It does drink well now but it needs years in the cellar for it to show you all that it has. Pair with duck breast, roasted lamb, or beef braised in red wine.