2011 Côtes de Tablas Blanc

Production Notes

The Tablas Creek Vineyard Côtes de Tablas Blanc is a blend of four estate-grown white Rhône varietals: Viognier, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Marsanne. The wine, like most wines of the Southern Rhône, is a blend of varietals, featuring the floral aromatics and stone fruit of Viognier, the crisp acids and rich mouthfeel of Grenache Blanc, and the structure and minerality of Marsanne and Roussanne.

The grapes for our Côtes de Tablas Blanc were grown on our 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.

The 2011 vintage was our second consecutive winter with healthy rainfall, but yields were dramatically reduced by two nights of frost on April 8th and 9th, impacting particularly early-sprouting grapes like Viognier and Grenache Blanc.  Despite the low crop loads, ripening was slow due to a very cool summer, and harvest roughly three weeks later than normal, beginning in mid-September and not concluding until mid-November.  Warm, sunny weather during harvest allowed the later-ripening varieties to reach full maturity. The long hangtime and low yields combined to produce fruit with notable richness balanced by higher than usual acidity, all at low alcohol levels. Our Viognier was harvested between October 4th and October 13th, Grenache Blanc between September 29th and October 20th, Marsanne between September 29th and October 17th, and Roussanne between September 22nd and November 8th.

All varietals for the Côtes de Tablas Blanc were whole cluster pressed, and fermented in stainless steel to emphasize their clean crisp flavors and preserve their aromatics. Only native yeasts were used. After fermentation, the wines were racked and blended, and bottled in June 2012. The wine underwent only a light cold stabilization before bottling.

Tasting Notes

The 2011 Côtes de Tablas Blanc features a serious nose, minty with stone fruits and honey lurking underneath. The mouth is broad and rich, peaches and cream, but dry, with a very long finish with a hint of tannin, cream, and rocks, nicely saline at the end.

Reviews

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Recipe Suggestions

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Food Pairings

  • Mussels Marinière
  • Green salads with avocado and citrus dressing
  • Scallops
  • Ceviche
  • Light fish (halibut, sole) with tropical salsa
Cotes de Tablas Blanc

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Blend

  • 27% Viognier
  • 26% Grenache Blanc
  • 25% Marsanne
  • 22% Roussanne

Technical Notes

  • 13.1% Alcohol by Volume
  • 1475 Cases Produced

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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 »