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2014 Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Tablas

Removed from a professional wine storage facility

Ends Sunday, 7pm Pacific

RATINGS

92-93Vinous / IWC

High-pitched red and dark berry scents display excellent clarity... Juicy and focused on the palate; intense, appealingly sweet cherry, black raspberry and spicecake flavors... Finishes with impressive energy and cut, delivering dusty, late-arriving tannins and lingering spiciness.

92Wine Enthusiast

An elegantly integrated dark-red-cherry component distinguishes the nose...with hints of sagebrush and baking spice...palate combines dark-berry flavors with dried herbs, graphite and light sarsaparilla, with well-integrated acidity and a silky yet firm texture.

92Jeb Dunnuck

...lots of minerality and hints of salinity, with ripe black raspberries, currants, pepper and olive aromas and flavors, it has medium to full-bodied richness, good acidity and ripe tannin.

90The Wine Advocate

...opens with fragrant dried roses, Ceylon tea and tobacco leaf notes over a core of black cherries, anise and black earth, plus a touch of underbrush. Medium to full-bodied with a firm frame of chewy tannins and lively acid, it offers a solid, muscular core of earthy flavors and a long finish with some pepper notes coming through.

90Wine Spectator

Densely built but zesty, with dried cherry and smoky beef aromas and a firm backbone of dark plum, cracked pepper and tar notes, finishing with snappy tannins.

15.5Jancis Robinson

Quite rich and polished. Satin-smooth and scented with a beginning, middle and end. Real grip on the finish. Convincingly expressive of Roussanne. Lots to chew on.

PRODUCER

Tablas Creek Vineyard

Tablas Creek s a 120-acre estate in Paso Robles, on California’s Central Coast. It was established in 1985 when long-time wine importer Robert Haas and the Perrin family of Chateau de Beaucastel in the Rhone Valley decided to make wine together on the Central Coast. The friends purchased land in 1989 in the Las Tablas district of west Paso Robles because it resembled the land the Perrins own in France. Traditional Rhone Valley grape varietals were imported and the debut vintage was in 1997. The estate’s signature wines are the Esprit de Tablas, which prior to the 2011 vintage were called Esprit de Beaucastel. The estate makes a red and white, and both are Rhone-style blends. Tablas Creek wines are consistently well-rated, and Robert M. Parker Jr. has often rated them in the mid- to high-90s.

REGION

United States, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles

Paso Robles AVA is midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and it is considered one of the West Coast’s most exciting winemaking regions. With its hot, sometimes searingly dry and sunny weather, it is especially good country for growing warm climate grapes such as Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. Because many Paso Robles wineries have been successful with blending these grapes into Rhone Valley-style wines, it is known as the Rhone zone of California. The AVA was created in 1983 and there are 32,000 vineyard acres. In late 2014 the AVA was divided into 11 smaller sub-appellations, so starting with 2015 vintages labeling will become more specific on Paso Robles wines, which will now also list sub-appellations. Located in San Luis Obispo County, Paso Robles, the town and its surrounding area, was traditionally a farming and ranching region. But from a few dozen wineries in the early 1990s to more than 200 today, the area is quickly becoming known for wine and risk-taking winemakers.

VINTAGE

2014 Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Tablas