The 2010 Tablas Creek Vineyard Vin de Paille Sacrérouge is Tablas Creek’s fifth bottling of this non-traditional application (to red grapes) of an ancient 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 (usually in about 3 weeks) they are crushed by foot and fermented in small open-top fermenters using only native yeasts. When they reach their desired level of extraction, we press them and move the juice to oak barrels to continue fermenting until it reaches an alcohol level where the sweetness of the wine is in balance with its acids, tannins, and mineral characteristics. The Vin de Paille Sacrérouge is made from 100% Mourvèdre grapes.
The grapes for our Vin de Paille Sacrérouge were grown on our 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.
The 2010 vintage saw healthy rainfall after three years of drought. The ample early-season groundwater and a lack of spring frosts produced a good fruit set. A very cool summer delayed ripening by roughly three weeks, with harvest not beginning until mid-September and still less than half complete in mid-October. Warm, sunny weather between mid-October and mid-November allowed the later-ripening varieties to reach full maturity. The long hangtime and cool temperatures combined to produce fruit with intense flavors and dark color at low alcohol levels. Mourvèdre was harvested between October 4th and November 18th.
The wine, after pressing, was aged in three new French oak barrels for 15 months before being bottled in January of 2012.
The 2010 Vin de Paille Sacrérouge has a sweet nose of dates, plums, and figs, with dark cherries, black plum, cassis and chocolate in the mouth. The finish is sweet and long with lingering fig, chocolate, and mineral notes.
[...more recent Tablas Creek press]
Join us, along with a dozen Paso Robles rosé producers for the ultimate summer wine revel! Held at Star Farms in San Miguel, complete with a half-acre blue lagoon pool, white sandy beaches and tropical palm trees, the afternoon begins with a rosé Grand Tasting and continues with great live music and revelry. Proceeds benefit the Cancer Support Community. Details & more events »
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 »
May 20, 2013
We are proud to have been named a finalist for "Best Winery Blog" at the 2013 Wine Blog Awards. This is the sixth consecutive year we've been finalists, and we've taken home the trophy twice, in 2008 and 2011. We'd love to make the 2013 awards a three-peat, and look back at nine favorite posts of the last year. More »