1999 Reserve Cuveé

Reserve Cuvée: The Beginning

In the early years of Tablas Creek, we produced just one red wine and one white wine, and called these Rouge and Blanc.  Beginning in 1999, we separated our red production into two wines: the Reserve Cuvée (which the next year we would rename Esprit de Beaucastel) and the Petite Cuvée (which would become the Cotes de Tablas).

Like the Esprit de Beaucastel, the Reserve Cuvée is a selection from our most compelling lots, blended for elegance, richness, and longevity.

Production Notes

The Tablas Creek Vineyard Reserve Cuvée 1999 is a blend of four estate-grown varietals, propagated from budwood cuttings from the Château de Beaucastel estate. The wine is based on the dark red fruit, earth, spice and mid-palate richness of Mourvèdre, with additions of Grenache for forward fruit, approachability and lushness, Syrah for mineral, aromatics, and back-palate tannins, and Counoise for brambly spice and acidity.

The grapes for our Reserve Cuvée were grown on our 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.

The 1999 Reserve Cuvée is a powerful expression of the outstanding 1999 vintage. The crop was small and concentrated. The harvest took place starting in September under ideal conditions and continued through October.  The lots were fermented separately with native yeasts, then blended in the spring of 2000 and aged in 1200-gallon foudres until the wine's bottling in July of 2001.

Tasting Notes

The 1999 Reserve Cuvée is a deeply colored, richly intense, highly extracted wine, redolent of ripe cherries, raspberries, currants and blueberries held together in a velvety tannic structure.  We expect it to age for a decade or longer.

Updated tasting notes from a December 2010 vertical tasting can be found on the Tablas Creek blog.

Reviews

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Recipe Suggestions

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Reserve Cuvee

Not Available for Purchase

Blend

  • 40% Mourvèdre
  • 27% Grenache Noir
  • 23% Syrah
  • 10% Counoise

Technical Notes

  • 14.7% alcohol by volume
  • 2208 cases produced

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