Tablas Creek Patelin de Tablas Rouge Paso Robles 2023

Tablas Creek is an estate in Paso Robles that, since 1989, has pooled the resources and wisdom of two great wine families from France and the United States. The Perrin family are the owners of the legendary Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate Châtea de Beaucastel, while the Haas family have a history in the wine import business that goes back over 50 years.

Together they have established an estate a dozen miles from the Pacific in the hills of Paso Robles at 1,500 feet altitude, where the climate is Mediterranean and the soils similar to those on the Perrins’ home turf in the Rhône. The elevation allows a long ripening period for grapes that come from clones taken from Beaucastel in France.

Mourvédre, grenaches noir and blanc, syrah, counoise, viognier, roussanne, marsanne and picpoul blanc were planted and are dry farmed, with a 50%-35% split between red and white is made, with rosé making up the rest. Native yeasts ferment the must and wines are matured in large old oak foudres.

Environmental sustainability

Tablas Creek has led the way on sustainability in wine in the USA, and in 2020 they were the United States' first Regenerative Organic Certified vineyard – a certification that is both inclusive of and yet more wide-ranging than organic and biodynamic practices. In 2023, they won the California Green Medal for Environment from the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance.

They incorporate many biodynamic techniques across the estate vineyard to minimise their impact on the land. They even have their own herds of sheep and alpacas (along with shepherd and sheep dogs). The sheep have an additional benefit in the summer months – when they are sent to graze in the surrounding woods, eating the dry matter that can be a cause of forest fires.

This producer has also experimented with its packaging and they have outlawed the use of single use water bottles on their estate.

Social sustainability

In 2016, Tablas Creek won the CSWA’s prestigious community award for their work with local people in and around Paso Robles.