Tasting Room Open
Our tasting room is now open to the public! Currently we are open Thursday through Monday, from 10:00 to 4:30, and by appointment on Tuesday and Wednesday. In addition to tasting new Tablas Creek releases, visitors can also take the most complete vineyard tour on the Central Coast, including our estate vineyard, state-of-the-art nursery complex, and winery. Tours leave at 10:30 and 2:00 Thursday through Monday, and by appointment all other times.

Directions and a map are available on line.

For more information, or to make an appointment, contact our Hospitality Manager Carol Ann Lockary at 805-237-1231 or at calockary@tablascreek.com.

Wine Club Shipment Goes Out
Our inaugural Wine Club shipment was mailed on August 23! It consisted of two bottles each of the 2000 Esprit de Beaucastel (formerly Reserve Cuvée), the 2001 Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc (formerly Clos Blanc), and the 2001 Rosé. These new vintages are not yet released to the public, and are only available through the Wine Club. It's not too late to join the Wine Club and receive the shipment! Contact Carol Ann Lockary at 805-237-1231 or calockary@tablascreek.com for more information.

Interested in the Esprit de Beaucastel name change? We have more information.

Bob and Barbara Haas with 49ers owner John York Meghan Dunn and Jason Haas on the field at 3Com Park.

Recent Events
On Sunday, September 15, Tablas Creek was featured at the home opener of the San Francisco 49ers. We kicked off the football season by pouring our wines at a pre-game buffet luncheon and a post-game reception in 3Com Park's VIP lounge and for guests in the owners' suite. The event was part of new 49ers program designed to expose their luxury box clientele to wines from throughout California. In addition to increasing our exposure among a receptive audience, we got to watch the game as guests of the owners. Despite the 49ers' loss to the Broncos, it was a fantastic afternoon!

For more information, read the press release about the event.

September 25-29 saw us at the 12th annual Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This fantastic event featured a trade tasting, a reserve tasting and auction, a series of seminars, and a grand tasting with more than 2000 attendees. Bob Haas was a panelist in the "Blending Rhone Varietals" seminar, along with representatives from Qupe and Ridge, and Tablas Creek was featured at a wine dinner at Paul's Restaurant so successful that by the end of the evening the displays of the wines were being disassembled to meet the demand.

We also have information on upcoming events now available online!

An excellent harvest is well underway here at Tablas Creek Vineyard. After a real heat wave in the second half of September, we've had cool foggy nights and daytime highs in the mid 70s as we moved into October. This weather change has slowed the ripening of some of our later-ripening varietals (such as Mourvédre), and allowed us to catch up a bit on the crush of grapes we received in September.

Nursery Manager Laura Wulff punches down the Syrah

Harvest kicked off with the Syrah on September 6. Other varietals followed soon after: Viognier on September 12, Marsanne on September 13, Roussanne on September 14, Counoise on September 17, Grenache Blanc & Grenache Noir on September 19, and Mourvédre on September 26. As of October 2, we were about three quarters of the way through harvest, and have brought in just over 173 tons of fruit (translating to roughly 10,000 cases of wine). So far, we're looking at a total production in the neighborhood of 220 tons: 120 red and 100 white, or 7200 cases of red and 6000 cases of white. We also expect our Rosé production to increase to 300-400 cases this year.

Overall, the quality looks tremendous. The year appears to have been particularly favorable to the cooler varietals, and the Viognier and the Syrah are both showing beautifully at this stage. The Viognier is hugely aromatic, and during fermentation you only had to open the door to the tank room to smell the peaches and violets characteristic of the varietal. The Syrah is inky and dense, with highly concentrated fruit, good spice, and relatively moderate tannins.

Assistant Winemaker Ryan Hebert stomps Counoise grapes

Winemaker Neil Collins and Ryan Hebert remove the skins of red grapes from the tanks

The nursery's grafting year has ended with the successful grafting of over 175,000 vines! Nursery staff are now busy caring for poinsettias in anticipation of the holiday season.

This is a great time to place your grafted vine and budwood orders for next year, while we have full availability of all our TruWood varietals.

Please contact Nursery Manager Laura Wulff at (805) 237-1231 or laura@tablascreek.com.