The Data

Country   USA

Appellation   Adelaida District

Varietal   White Blend

Retail Price   $75

ABV   12.5%

Score   5 Stars/97 points

In the Glass

Brilliant, medium golden color.

The aromatics are intense, offering scents of honey, star fruit, and apricot stone with supporting notes of baked apple, beeswax, blanched almonds, citrus zest, and lychee.

The palate echoes the nose, delivering a ripe orchard fruits-driven core with flavors of pear, lemon curd, and kiwi. The finish is long and lingering.

Medium to full-bodied and perfectly balanced with an opulent texture.

Cool Factor

Tablas Creek is a unique winery in California that seamlessly marries Old World and New World winemaking. This wine is one of the best Rhône-style white blends made in the USA. What could be cooler?

Value Grade

At $75 a bottle, it's certainly beyond many wine drinkers' weeknight budget, but considering the pedigree and the fact that this wine will age very gracefully, we recommend it.

Analysis

The Esprit de Tablas is Tablas Creek's top-tiered, white Rhône-style blend and an annual favorite at BevX. It’s always a complex blend of white Rhône varietals, showcasing the winery’s depth of varietals in their estate vineyard. The 2021 vintage is comprised of 48% Roussanne, 22% Grenache Blanc, 13% Picpoul Blanc, 10% Bourboulenc, 5% Picardan, and 2% Clairette Blanche. The 2023 vintage began with their wettest ever winter. The growing season was the coolest in more than a decade, resulting in a harvest that came roughly a month later than recent vintages. The grapes for this wine were grown in their certified organic and biodynamic estate vineyard. The six varietals were all fermented separately in a variety of vessels, from neutral oak barrels to foudres and stainless steel. The best lots are blended in April 2024 and then rested in a foudre for an additional eight months before being bottled in December 2024. This is an incredible wine with a bright future from a superb vintage.

How to Enjoy

As always with the Esprit de Tablas Blanc, if you choose to drink this wine in its youth, please decant it, as this will allow the aromatics to bloom fully. Serve chilled with grilled lobster, duck confit, or a complex and spicy stir-fry.