Winefullness Magazine
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Waiting for the Seekers of Tablas
Talking
Tablas
Creek
Tablas Bottle in Green
One can start a wine adventure in the most unlikely of places. A friend's house, a recommendation from somebody you've just met, or in my case, seat 1A on a Virgin Atlantic flight that was taking me across the pond for an earlier visit to California.
I was sitting comfortably, not budging for anybody because this was my first upper class jaunt and I was eager to savour a comfort that was easy to get used to, and where it was pleasant to do a bit of reading up in preparation for some of the wineries I'd lined up to visit.
I'd spread books on Californian wine out. Blank pieces of paper were waiting to be filled with a variety of questions I wanted answering, and a glass of a rather bland white wine was going untouched.
A stewardess asked me if I was okay with the wine, and then noticing the detritus all over my space. She quizzed me about what I was doing, and after I told her, she smiled patiently as though she'd heard it all before. Then she was off in a flash to check up on other passengers.
Half an hour later she returned carrying a glass of wine, and swapping it for the untouched white told me that this was a wine that Virgin were launching. It was from a place called Paso Robles, and the name was something 'Esprit' by a winery called Tablas Creek.
I tasted it, and found it so enjoyable that I asked her to bring the bottle to show me, made notes, and thanked her for introducing me to a wine that I wanted to know more about.
I wasn't stopping in Paso Robles on that trip, nor on the next, or the one after that, but the name of Tablas Creek remained in my mind, and everywhere it was served I always took a glass.
In the intervening years, Tablas Creek have grown and become one of the bigger players on the Paso wine scene, and for some reason I thought that they might be based right in the heart of the serene setting that is Paso Robles, but if one wants something different one often needs to put in the leg work, and now, after a number of years, here I was wending my way up mountains, driving along roads that were so pleasant they could have got a job as a nanny, and heading with a sense of immense anticipation towards the winery I'd wanted to visit since that first tasting in seat 1A.
I finally arrived, drove towards a shady parking spot, passed a few Tablas Seekers who were sampling the good life, and then I entered the tasting room where Charlie Chester (not named after the British ​entertainer of the
Lifting the Lid
50s I assume) the Senior Assistant Tasting Room Manager was waiting with wine in hand ready to pour, and levels of patience he might need when it came to answering my questions.
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Winefullness Magazine: I notice that you're organising a Rhône cruise. Is this to tie aspects of the business together?
Charles: Down the Rhône river, a trip to our sister vineyard Chateau Beaucastel. It's a small riverboat able to hold 150 people. It's going to be awesome.
Winefullness Magazine: You're one of the big players of the Paso Robles wine scene.
Charles: I think Tablas Creek is very well recognised. A lot of people respect us for who we are and what we do.
Winefullness Magazine: Doesn't that carry a certain amount of responsibility?
Charles: I mean we bought this property back in 1989, and back then there were 17 wineries in Paso. We basically helped pave the road for for Rhônes in Paso Robles. Leading the charge for a lot of Rhône varietals.
We're certified as well and try to be good stewards to the land. Since the beginning we've been farming organically. Biodynamics came along years later.
Winefullness Magazine: Dry farming?
Charlie: Yes. I mean I won't lie, if you walk out there you'll see an irrigation line about a foot off the ground covering some of the vines, but we dry farm as much as we possibly can. Forty percent and growing.
Tablas On Parade in Green
Winefullness Magazine: Has it been difficult lately?
Charlie: I mean farming in general is never easy. Drought, frost and things like that have been affecting our yields.
Winefullness Magazine: How have you been coping with that?
Charlie: Stuff that has been dry farmed is surviving well. We've realised that the head pruned vines are more drought tolerant than the trellised vines. Our newest plantings are head pruned.
Winefullness Magazine: Strong French links...
Charlie: Of course. We partner with Château Beaucastel. It's a fifty/fifty partnership. Last week they helped assemble red wines for the 24 vintage.
Winefullness Magazine: They said that when they found this place it was one of the most expensive vineyards in the world.
Charlie: I would say it was a healthy and timely investment. It took eight years to make our first vintage of wine. 30 years later we got the final Châteauneuf-du-Pape variety in the ground. We just bottled that up, 21 cases, a couple of weeks ago. In reality it started out as an experiment. What would happen if we tried this Châteauneuf-du-Pape variety in California. It's been successful.
Winefullness Magazine: What are the biggest difficulties facing the winery at this time?
Charlie: There's a lot. Farming in general is never easy. Viruses are an issue, and on the business side it seems like less and less people are drinking wine.
Winefullness Magazine: It seems that there is a lack of a youth market. How are you coping with this?
Charlie: A lot of the wine market is leaning more towards crisp whites and naturally with the Rhône varieties we have a lot of those crisps whites.
Tablas on Parade in Colour
Winefullness Magazine: Do you think that with the climate problems facing everybody you'll move further south with your varietals?
Charlie: I think we're probably going to stick to our guns as long as we can, and sticking with the Rhône grapes seems to be a safe direction.
Climate change is real and I can't really guess how it will go here in Paso. More and more coastal vineyards seem to be developing different varieties. Even Bordeaux is allowing a few new varieties in.
Winefullness Magazine: If you had to recommend a wine that symbolises Tablas Creek which would it be?
Charlie: I would naturally lean towards Esprit de Tablas. It's our flagship red wine, it's what we set out with. In the early years we were only going to make two wines. A white wine based on Roussanne and a red wine based on Mourvèdre. Then we introduced the Cotes de Tablas series, wines that are in the spirit of our sister vineyard. That went on until 2010 when we realised that we didn't need our sister vineyard's fame as much as we did in the beginning.
Winefullness Magazine: You've done different experiments with managing the vineyard floors?
Charlie: We found that the grazing is fantastic. The microbes are thriving there. A lot of it is still at the experimental stage. We're looking at options. Either mowing or crimping. It's still just an experiment and we're not sure what direction to go and that's why we're looking at all sorts of different avenues.
Winefullness Magazine: Has your relationship with the consumer changed since COVID?
Charlie: COVID was amazing for us. It was one of our best sales years ever. It got us to look at different things. We are primarily by reservation now, although we will take walk-ins when he have the availability. We've changed to the flight format as opposed to the old school one glass sample.
I think that creates a better customer experience. It allows customers to kind of leisurely delve through three to five wines we're delivering. We're still getting the occasional virtual tasting request. It made us really think about the market. A strong mailing list really helped us a lot.
Winefullness Magazine: We're in another set of difficult times for different reasons. How are you managing with those?
Charlie: It's a bit beyond me. It might not be the best thing for California wines. In Canada they pulled California wines off the shelves. Interesting times. I don't really know what we're going to do about that.
Winefullness Magazine: How do you see the future?
Charlie: Positive. We've been growing every year and our wine club is very strong. Traffic is decent. We'd always like more people, but I think in general travel to Paso has trickled off a little bit.
Post COVID everybody is visiting their own backyard, and I think that will create more traffic in the long run, but the amount of people coming to visit Paso has reduced over the last couple of years. I think COVID is hard to figure out.
I read about a new hotel popping up in Paso. A huge one downtown and multiple other ones popping up in Templeton and Paso. People are hoping to fill those hotel rooms, so there's quite a few of us feeling positive.
Winefullness Magazine: It's my first visit to Paso Robles. What would you say are the difference between here, Napa and Sonoma?
Charlie: One thing I hear a lot from people is that Paso is just very friendly and laid back compared to places like Napa. Our prices aren't as high. Up there more and more wineries are coming in with excessive priced bottles. We try and keep our wines accessible. We try and keep the tasting experience accessible. We've a $25 dollar tasting fee that is waved for a two bottle purchase. I think in this day and age that's great value. Our bottle prices are good. We only have one wine over $100. Our flagship red is $70 retail.
The Tablas Creek Sign
Winefullness Magazine: Charlie what is your story?
Charlie: I've always been a fan of Tablas Creek. I was in the wine club. I had another job when I was going to college and it was actually taking people out wine tasting and I discovered Tablas Creek through that. I really came to taste the wine out of curiosity, and I went from being like a fly-in-the-wall listening to all the stories in the tasting room to a happy participant.
Then in 2011 they built a new tasting room. I was looking for another job and just kind of fell into it.
Winefullness Magazine: What's the best and the worst thing about the job?
Charlie: The best is working for a company I can be proud to work for. The worst, is that I can't really think of anything. To be honest I work full-time. I've been here since 2011, almost fifteen years now. I've got Friday and Saturdays off. They take care of us with perks like paid holidays, benefits and all that stuff.
Winefullness Magazine: What is the thing with alpacas and sheep?
Charlie: We have one alpaca left it. They were brought along with the sheep as sort of guardians. The sheep were brought to graze the cover crop from harvest until bud break. We do concentrated grazing in the vineyard, and we let the cover crop thrive.
They help in a lot of ways, less physical impact and less fossil fuel being burnt. It's really one of the best ways to keep the soil alive and healthy, and they came along with the biodynamics, and that has been embraced throughout Paso Robles now. I don't know if we were the first, but we did get a lot of recognition for it, and if you now drive through Paso you'll see sheep and goats on vineyards all over.
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And in no time at all I'd asked my questions and Charlie was off to take care of a couple who'd travelled up that same winding road that led to the door.
I packed my stuff, took a few last photographs outside where the seekers of Tablas were still sipping and laughing with such obvious enthusiasm, but did it meet my expectations?
The journey was worth it alone, and the wines I tasted were more than the icing on the cake as each showed a different facet of what Tablas Creek was trying to achieve.
It would have been interesting to have been shown behind the scenes so that everything could have been contextualised but it was not to be, and was only the smallest fly in this particularly pleasant ointment.
Maybe next time, because I'd decided early on that Paso Robles was worth at least one more visit, and the Tablas Creek winery was certainly worth gopher dodging to get there.
Just One More Thing
The Tablas Selection
Dianthus Rosé - 2024
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This almost felt as though I was entering Bandol territory, and that's not a bad thing in my opinion.
They've been making this since 1999, and you can tell because it comes along in such considered way.
I'm getting a slight earthy feel mixed with a smooth minerality before strawberries and red fruit take hold of the wine.
It's got a lot more body than most Rosés and it's juicier than a fruity story told down the pub.
Estate Grenache - 2023
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There's a light cherry spine to this that is surrounded by bright red fruit with red liquorice. I'm also getting a jammy fig taste that I'm enjoying
The mixture of red and dark fruit is satisfying and balanced, and I feel that this is such a pleasure to taste that I'm hunting out a bottle when I get home.
Lignée Grenache - 2022
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This is a lovely, delicate wine that needs nurturing to get the best because that candied red fruit needs your full attention if you're to get the best out of it.
There's a nod towards cassis and a real Italian Balsamic, as well as a tinge of leather and chocolate.
Those red cherries and growing dark fruit made this feel like a wine that would work well at a summer barbecue.
Côtes de Tablas Red - 2023
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A spicy nose with give way to a calm mixture of red and dark fruit.
I'm getting a smokey mushroom, clove and forest floor that mean it would work well with a good steak.
This feels rich, and the big mouthfeel holds a ton of blackcurrant and red plum.
What is not to enjoy here.
Esprit de Tablas Red - 2022
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A lovely and delicate wine that comes across a little shy at first, but give it a chance and you're rewarded with pronounced dark fruit that's not too intrusive, an edge of black pepper that puts this firmly in Rhône territory.
If you're going to try one wine from Tablas then this is it. What are you waiting for?
