Printable Restaurant/Shelf Talker

REVIEWS
Vinography.com (Jan. 2008)
Gang of Pour (Dec. 2007)
Tanzer's IWC (Nov. 2007)
Wine Advocate (Aug. 2007)

HOW IS IT DRINKING?
Vintage Chart

The 2005 Tablas Creek Vineyard Mourvèdre is Tablas Creek's third varietal bottling of Mourvedre. The wine shows the rich cherry, fig, mocha and spice flavors, medium to full body, and a spicy, appealing finish of saddle leather and loam of the Mourvedre grape.

We use most of our Mourvedre in our Esprit de Beaucastel each year. However, we feel that this is a grape, often dismissed as "just a blending varietal", that is capable of making tremendously rich and balanced single-varietal wines as well. When we have particularly intense and characteristing lots of Mourvedre, we try to reserve a limited quantity for a single-varietal bottling.

As with all our wines, our Mourvedre grapes were grown on our 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.

The 2005 vintage was one of nature's lucky breaks, with excellent quality and higher-than-normal yields. The wet winter of '04-'05 gave the grapevines ample groundwater, and a warm period in March got the vines off to an early May flowering. The summer was uniformly sunny but relatively cool, and harvest began (relatively late for us) in the 3rd week of September. The grapes spent nearly a month longer than normal on the vine, and the resulting wines were intensely mineral, with good structure and powerful aromatics. The Mourvedre was harvested (earlier, compared to our other varietals) between October 11th and October 28th.

The Mourvedre grapes were destemmed and then fermented using native yeasts in a balance of small open-top and enclosed stainless steel tanks. After three weeks, they were pressed and moved to 1200-gallon foudres to complete their fermentation. The Mourvedre lots were blended in June of 2006, when we added 10% Syrah to give a touch of black fruit and mineral to the wine. It was aged for an additional year in a 1200-gallon foudres and bottled in June 2007. The wine underwent only a light filtration before bottling, and should be expected to throw a sediment over time.

The 2005 Mourvèdre displays a classic nose of roasted meats, plums and spice. Juicy and full in the mouth, it features lingering notes of plum, currant, coffee, chocolate and leather, with a long mineral finish. We expect it to drink well for a decade or more.