2024 Tablas Creek Vineyards Cotes De Tablas Rouge Paso Robles California 6pk 6x750ml

Tablas Creek Vineyard started in 1989 as a partnership between Robert Haas, founder of Vineyard Brands and one of the most respected figures in the American wine trade, and the Perrin family of Chateau de Beaucastel in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. They imported cuttings of the traditional Chateauneuf-du-Pape varieties directly from the Perrin estate and planted them in the rocky limestone soils of Paso Robles' Adelaida District. Today the estate vineyard is certified organic, biodynamic, and Regenerative Organic Certified.

Cotes de Tablas is the estate's Grenache-led blend, the Tablas answer to a great Cotes du Rhone. The 2024 is 47% Grenache, 28% Syrah, 13% Counoise and 12% Mourvedre, fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel and wooden upright fermenters, then aged a year in large French oak foudres. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered, and 1,500 cases were made.

2024 began with a second straight wet winter and a cool first half of summer. Then came Tablas Creek's warmest July on record and above-average heat through October. Harvest was compressed and largely done by the second week of October, with yields about 20% below average. Low yields and a warm year gave fruit with intense flavor and real vibrancy.

Tablas Creek calls this an unusually dark, complex Cotes de Tablas: black raspberry, bramble and a hint of tiramisu on the nose, black and red fruit and licorice on the palate, with bay, bitter chocolate and a bite of chalky tannin on the finish. Decanter and James Suckling both gave it 95, and Wine Enthusiast made it a 94-point Cellar Selection.