Vineyard and Winemaking

Explore Tablas Creek Vineyards and learn more about our vineyards and winemaking process.

Vineyard

Tablas Creek’s wine production is centered around our limestone-rich 120-acre organic estate vineyard in the hills north and west of Paso Robles. The warm days and cool nights allow our vines to gracefully ripen the Rhône varietals we grow. Our viticulture practices emphasize dry farming and seek to maximize the expression of our terroir. We farm organically, and received our organic certification in January 2003. More recently, we have converted part of the vineyard to use Biodynamic techniques. At harvest, each vineyard block is hand-harvested selectively, and we typically make 2-4 passes through each vineyard block at harvest. [more about our Vineyard and Viticulture]

Winemaking

The Perrin and Haas families, along with winemaker Neil Collins, believe that minimum human intervention in our winemaking process preserves the wine’s link to its place of origin. All Tablas Creek wines are fermented using only native yeasts. White grapes are gently whole cluster pressed, and the juice is fermented in aged French oak barrels and stainless steel. Red grapes are sorted and destemmed after harvest, and the juice and whole berries moved to fermenters. During fermentation, the must is pumped over or punched down twice a day. After fermentation, the red wines are pressed, then blended and aged for one year in 1200-gallon French oak foudres. As is traditional in Châteauneuf du Pape, we blend our Rhône varietals to produce wines that are more complex, better balanced, and richer than single varietal wines. [more about our Winemaking]

Nursery

Our on-site vinifera nurseries, rootstock fields and grafting and growing facilities were created to provide us with the Rhone varietals we have planted in our vineyards, but we have since 1996 made these high quality clones available for purchase by interested vineyards. Customers who wish to purchase Rhone varietal budwood and grafted vines using Tablas Creek vinifera material can do so exclusively through NovaVine Nursery of Sonoma, California, who produce grafted vines of consistent high quality using environmentally responsible farming practices. [more about the Tablas Creek Nursery]

Grapes

There are dozens of varietals grown in the Rhône Valley in France. 13 of these are approved in Châteauneuf du Pape, with another 8 approved in the Côtes du Rhône appellation. We chose to import the 9 chief varietals of the Southern Rhône for our Paso Robles estate vineyard: Mourvèdre, Syrah, Grenache, and Counoise for the reds, and Roussanne, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, and Picpoul for the whites. [more about our Grapes]

Upcoming Events

Farm to Fork Earth Day Dinner 4/20

Join Tablas Creek, Artisan Restaurant and the Central Coast Vineyard Team for a dinner in the vines that will kick off the 2012 Earth Day Food & Wine Festival. Tour our organic vineyard and new animal barn, and enjoy a dinner prepared by Artisan's Chris Kobayashi, paired with Tablas Creek wines. Details & More Events »

Tablas Creek News

February Featured Wine: 2009 Tannat

Each month, we feature a wine that we feel is showing particularly well, and offer that wine at a 10% discount.  The 2009 Tannat is dark and smoky, rich with fruit yet powerfully structured. The Wine Advocate gave it 90-93 points and called it "absolutely fabulous...with an opulent, full-bodied personality graced with exquisite inner perfume". Read more » or order online »

On the Blog: Levi Glenn and David Maduena demonstrate grapevine pruning

February 21, 2012

In February the relative calm of winter ends. The days start to get longer, the cover crops explode into growth, and it feels like spring is around the corner. This is when we prune. Viticulturist Levi Glenn and Vineyard Manager David Maduena demonstrate and explain. Read more »