I have admired Tablas Creek for as long as I can remember. In fact, a few years ago our USA buyer, Sarah Knowles MW, introduced me to owner Jason Haas as I was determined to work the 2022 harvest with the Tablas team. Unfortunately, visa challenges meant I couldn’t pull it off in the end, but I have continued to follow their pioneering work (in all its guises) and enjoy their beautiful wines from afar, and it’s a privilege to work with this producer while Sarah is on maternity leave.
Order by midday on Friday 21st February
Esprit de Tablas is Tablas Creek’s flagship wine, selected from the best lots of estate-grown grape varieties propagated from budwood cuttings taken from the Château de Beaucastel estate in Châteauneuf-du-Pape – and the 2022 iteration is a complete beauty. I was impressed with its aromatic intensity and nuance, but most of all with its effortless balance. Ripe, succulent fruit is matched by refreshing, lively acidity, creating a gorgeous wine which is approachable now but easily has another half-a-dozen years or more in the tank. I’m delighted to offer it to you today, ahead of shipment from the USA.
After the near-perfect growing conditions in 2021, the 2022 season in Paso Robles seemed to be following suit, that is until a vicious heatwave arrived at the end of August and into early September, condensing harvest into a short, urgent one. Successful growers in this vintage are – unsurprisingly, and as ever – those who were hugely attentive to what was happening in the vineyards and made decisive calls about picking dates.
Due to the soaring temperatures across the region, many of the best 2022 wines in Paso Robles hail from its westernmost appellations, including the Adelaida District, where Tablas Creek is based. Here, the coastal fogs and sea breezes provided some relief to the heat intensity.
I am sure that Tablas’s approach to farming – regenerative organic (the first wine producer in the world to be certified regenerative organic, in fact) – is a further contributing factor in how they retain acidity and varietal expression in their fruit, in a hot, dry climate. Their vineyard work – including the use of cover crops, compost teas, grazing sheep, composting – builds up soil organic matter, which in turn enhances the soil’s water holding capacity, allowing the vines to better cope with drought and hydric stress.
Such painstaking work has certainly paid off, particularly in such a vintage. Clearly, the Tablas Creek team didn’t miss a beat, as I’d expect with their permanent team of skilled vineyard workers, and the energy and elegance of their 2022 Esprit de Tablas is testament to this.
