Tablas Creek Vineyard: winery information
Winemaker: Neil Collins
Neil is both the Executive Winemaker and Vineyard Manager at Tablas Creek. He has been an integral part of the innovative Tablas Creek project from the beginning- helping to shape every vintage since our first, in 1998. Neil can be spotted cruising through the cellar often wearing both: a scruffy beard and a thoughtful grin.
Futures
Each fall, Tablas Creek offers futures on its two signature red wines, Esprit de Beaucastel and Panoplie, exclusively to its VINsider Wine Club members. These members are invited to taste the most recent vintage, and then reserve a select amount of these highly allocated wines at futures pricing. For details, visit http://www.tablascreek.com/wine_club
Tablas Creek’s limestone-rich 120-acre organic estate vineyard is located in the hills north and west of Paso Robles. The warm days and cool nights allow our vines to gracefully ripen the Rhône varietals we grow. Our viticulture practices emphasize dry farming and long-term vine health through cover cropping, mulching, and moderate crop levels. We farm organically, and received our organic certification in January 2003. More recently, we have incorporated many Biodynamic techniques across the vineyard, and converted 20 acres to complete Biodynamism, including our own mobile herd of sheep, alpacas and two guard donkeys, Fiona and Dottie (right). Our goal in our farming, as in our winemaking, is to minimize what we have to put on from the outside, and allow the maximum expression of character of place from this vineyard that we searched four years to find. [more about our Vineyard and Viticulture]
Grape Varieties Planted
- Viognier
- Vermentino
- Picpoul
- Petit Manseng
- Roussanne
- Mourvedre / Mataro
- Grenache Blanc
- Marsanne
- Pinot Noir
- Terret Noir
- Tannat
- Syrah / Shiraz
- Bourboulenc
- Cinsault
- Clairette Blanche
- Muscadine
- Picardan
- Vaccarese