Reviews

Wine Advocate (Aug. 2006)

The 2004 Tablas Creek Vineyard Vin de Paille is Tablas Creek's second bottling of this traditional Mediterranean technique for producing dessert wines. Ripe grape bunches are carefully laid down on straw-covered benches in our greenhouses, and allowed to dehydrate in the sun. When the grapes reach the desired concentration, we press them and move the juice to oak barrels for fermentation. The juice ferments until it reaches an alcohol level where the sweetness of the juice is balanced by the acids and mineral characteristics of the wine itself.

The 2004 Vin de Paille is a blend of four white Rhone grapes: Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, and Marsanne. As with all our wines, the grapes for our Vin de Paille were grown on our 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.

The 2004 vintage was excellent, with a very early spring balanced by a long, warm (but rarely hot) summer. The extended ripening cycle gave the grapes intense aromatics, pronounced minerality, and good structure. Unusually, there were periods of harvest when we were harvesting all our white grapes simultaneously. The Viognier was harvested between August 23rd and September 27th, the Marsanne between September 7th and 14th, the Grenache Blanc between September 22nd and 28th, and the Roussanne between September 10th and 29th.

The wine, after pressing, was aged in new French oak barrels for 9 months before being bottled in May of 2005. It was released in November 2005, after six more months in bottle.

The 2004 Vin de Paille has a beautiful nose of peaches and figs, with moderate sweetness and flavors of caramel, nectarine and spiced pears balanced by refreshing acidity. Its finish is lingering, with flavors of fig and spice.