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Reviews

Wine Advocate (Aug. 2007)
Wine Enthusiast (Apr. 2007)
Gang of Pour (Nov. 2006)
Madeline Triffon (Nov. 2006)
Stephen Tanzer (Sep. 2006)
Wine Advocate (Aug. 2006)

How is it drinking?
Vintage Chart

The Tablas Creek Vineyard Côtes de Tablas is a blend of four estate-grown Rhône varietals: Grenache, Syrah, Counoise and Mourvedre. Like most wines of the Southern Rhône, it is a blend of varietals, featuring the fruitiness of Grenache balanced by the spice and structure of Syrah, with meaty, earthy notes from Mourvedre and Counoise. The 2004 Côtes de Tablas is Tablas Creek's fifth release of its Côtes de Tablas red blend, made in the style of a full-throttle Côtes du Rhone.

As with all our wines, the grapes for our Côtes de Tablas were grown on our 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.

The 2004 vintage was excellent, with a very early spring balanced by a long, warm (but rarely hot) summer. The extended ripening cycle gave the grapes intense aromatics, pronounced minerality, good acids, and good structure. Our first lots of Syrah came in on September 3rd, followed by Grenache on September 17th, and Counoise September 30th. An early onset of the fall rains on October 14th stopped harvest for a short time, but two weeks of sunny, cool, and breezy temperatures allowed us to harvest most of the rest of the Mourvedre between October 23rd and 25th. A final lot of Mourvedre, harvested on November 18th (our latest harvest ever) completed the 2004 vintage.

All varietals were fermented in stainless steel with the use of native yeasts: the Syrah in open-top fermenters, punched down manually, and the other varietals in closed fermenters with pump-over aeration. After pressing, the wines were racked, blended, aged for a year in 1200-gallon French oak foudres, and then bottled in April 2006. The wines underwent only a light filtration before bottling.

The 2004 Côtes de Tablas has a juicy, berry nose of currants, raspberries, licorice and spice. The mouth is full of rich, sweet Grenache fruit showing good acidity and a long finish laced with licorice.