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2000 Esprit de Beaucastel
Production Notes
The Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Beaucastel 2000 is a blend of four estate-grown varietals, propagated from budwood cuttings from the Château de Beaucastel estate.
The 2000 vintage was beautifully balanced at the vineyard: warm sunny days persisted through the ripening season, without the intense baking heat that can dampen the varietals’ aromatics. Consistent warmth shortened the harvest, which began on September 18th with the Syrah, and finished with the last lots of Counoise and Mourvèdre on October 19th.
Native yeast fermentation was conducted in open and closed stainless steel fermenters and small oak “pieces”. After pressing, the wines were racked and blended, and aged for a year in 1200-gallon French oak foudres before being bottled in April, 2002. The wines are unfined and unfiltered.
The 2000 Esprit de Beaucastel is a richly intense wine, with aromatics of roasted meats, licorice and currants, and flavors of ripe cherries, blackberries, leather, earth and spice, held together in a velvety tannic structure.
Updated tasting notes from a December 2010 vertical tasting can be found on the Tablas Creek blog.
Reviews
- "Minerally, sanguine notes": James Molesworth (May 2010)
- 91 points; "bold but still balanced": Wine Anorak (July 2004)
- 90 points: Stephen Tanzer (Feb. 2004)
- 91 points; "superb": Wine Enthusiast (Dec. 2003)
- 92 points: "tremendous intensity as well as richness": Wine Advocate (Aug. 2003)
- 90 points: Wine&Spirits (Aug. 2003)
- "Unequivocally Rhone-like": Saveur (Aug. 2003)
- 93 points: Wine Advocate (Feb. 2002)
[...more recent Tablas Creek press]
Recipe Suggestions
Food Pairings
- Game
- Dark Fowl (i.e., duck)
- Richly flavored stews
- Lamb
- Asian preparation of red meats (i.e., beef stir fry)
Not Available for Purchase
Blend
- 35% Mourvèdre
- 26% Syrah
- 25% Grenache
- 14% Counoise
Technical Notes
- 14.6% alcohol by volume
- 4237 cases produced
Downloads
Upcoming Events
Celebrate Paso Robles Wine Festival with Tablas Creek
Join us for the Paso Robles Wine Community's biggest celebration! We'll pour Esprit de Beaucastel at Friday's Reserve Event and a range of new releases at Saturday's Grand Tasting. And all weekend we'll have special wines open at the winery and will be taking tours to visit our herd of sheep, alpacas and donkeys. Sunday 11am to 1:30pm enjoy Chef Jacob Lovejoy's small plates, free with a tasting. Details & more events »
Tablas Creek News
Featured Wine for May: 2011 Cotes de Tablas Blanc
In May, we're featuring our 2011 Cotes de Tablas Blanc at a 10% discount. In 2011, our Viognier crop was cut by 80% due to spring frost, leaving a tiny, intense yield of less than one-half a ton per acre. The resulting wine is rich and tropical, with stone fruits and honey, but at the same time firmly dry, with a very long, saline & mineral finish. Details »
On the Blog: When Terroir Was a Dirty Word
May 15, 2013
Take a look at the seven-line entry of Frank Schoonmaker, America’s foremost wine expert and author in 1964, about terroir. His association, rather than the "somewhereness" the wine exhibits, is more of a taste of dirt, neither elegant nor elevated: "somewhat unpleasant, common, persistent”. My, how things have changed. More »