Tablas Creek Vineyard
Côtes de Tablas
Mourvèdre, Syrah, Grenache, Counoise
Paso Robles, California, USA
2001
14.5%
$24.99 -- Mr. Whiskers, Nashville, TN
Color: Medium red with brown tinge
Nose: Blackberries and sweat
Body: Medium
Front: Sparkly spice
Middle: Plums
Back: Licorice, tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork
A good friend gifted a bottle of Tablas Creek's "Esprit de Beaucastel" wine a few years ago and it split the room's opinions. I liked it immensely, but others disliked the spicy, sparkly attack that the wine exhibited. Still young and spritzy, a bit. This wine has the same thing going for it--though it's not quite as pronounced--and I like it again.
Maybe I like it because I've been working like a dog this week; maybe because it's practically a spring day out here on the back porch with my wine and cheese and wisteria; or maybe it's just that this is an excellently structured, elegant wine.
2004 vintage: Stellar again, though not quite as complex as the 2001. Perhaps, though, with another year, it'll get there. Cherry and vanilla dominate in this incarnation.
