Sip This: Tablas Creek Vermentino

Tablas Creek Vermentino 2014: While it’s hard to beat sipping a rosé on a fine summer’s day, this unusual white is a fine alternative. There are about a 100 acres of it planted in the U.S., but this grape is well-established in Corsica, Sardinia, and Italy.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.

Reserve Tastings, White Rhones, The Central Coast, and You

Archie McLaren, the beret-topped impresario of the Central Coast Wine Classic, has organized his fest for 30 years now, raising money for all sorts of non-profits who do work in healing, performing, and studio arts. "I love the Central Coast Wine Classic, and think it's a largely unrecognized gem locally," claims Jason Haas, Partner and GM at Tablas Creek Vineyard. "The auction is its centerpiece, and gets great attendance from serious bidders from around the country as well as the local wine community, but the educational seminars are superb each year, the auxiliary dinners always beautifully done, and the two tastings a chance to taste some of the Central Coast's greatest wines in relative peace."

Want to read the rest then do so at KCET's Food Blog.

A White Wine in Red Clothing

It's that time of year when deciding what wine to drink can be climatically tricky. Heat spikes for a few days, making one wish for the freshness of a chilled rosé; then some pre-June gloom rolls in, and that seems to ask for something a bit heartier, like a warming, spicy syrah. That those two things can often happen in one day only confuses the matter more.

Want to read the rest then do so at KCET's Food Blog.

The Beasts At Tablas Creek

A sheep's bleat is no mere mild-mannered "Baa." It's insistent, full of needy vibrato. Imagine a few dozen of them at it, and the din almost turns into a horror movie soundtrack, but that doesn't seem to faze Levi Glenn, viticulturist at Tablas Creek Vineyard, who is standing amidst the flock, plus a couple of donkeys, and a few more aloof alpacas. As part of a recent Meet the Vineyard Animals event at the Paso Robles winery, Glenn led the tour, and got into the pen to fed the eager ruminants, who were up on their hind legs trying to jam their heads into his feed bucket. "If we get to a hundred sheep, then 50% of the mowing will be done by them," he explains. That helps keep the vineyard organic -- no need for Round-up when the sheep chomp the weeds -- and saves on hand-mowing, too.

Want to read the rest then do so at the KCET blog.

A Passel of Pinks

Come spring an oenophile's fancy turns to rosés. They definitely got a bad rap for years thanks to the proliferation of sickeningly sweet white zinfandels that began with Sutter Home in 1975. But even that wine was a mistake, a stuck fermentation that meant the yeast didn't eat up the sugars as it should -- the winemakers found the result interesting and when consumers went gaga for it, a new trend was born. Once again we learned that trends and taste aren't the same thing.

Want to read the rest then do so on KCET's blog.

Moony Over Mourvedre

Not to say I'm ahead of the curve or anything, but today's Food Section of the LA Times includes a feech on Mourvedre whose hook is that Wine Spectator's 2010 Wine of the Year, the 2007 Saxum "James Berry Vineyard" red blend, is 31% Mourvèdre. The article gets to this graph:

Mourvèdre is also not a varietal for novice wine drinkers, which sets it apart from many Paso Robles reds. For many, the strength of the area is full-bodied, fruity red wines that are often fairly straightforward. Mourvedre is rarely any of those; it's a wine aficionado's wine coming from a region that — until the Wine Spectator announcement — was not known for them.

I always find it fishy, calling myself an aficionado, but I guess I have to if I want to be a Times reader. For Georgeeats has been Georgedrinksmourvedre (that makes me a GDM, I guess, and that resonates so many ways) as long as he's been heading north to Paso. Paso, especially west of the 101, is lovely country, period, and not just after a stop at a tasting room or two. But talk about your big and bold wine--Turley, Linne Calodo, Four Vines, Zin Alley, Denner, Villa Creek, Halter Ranch, Tablas Creek, Justin. Just thinking about it makes my tongue tinge purple.

I tend not to buy too many of any one wine, as variety is the spice of the cellar, and then there's those other sadder issues--there's only so much money, so much storage. But a good 4 years back I split a case of Tablas Creek's single varietal Mourvedre (was it the 2004 vintage?) and never regretted a drop. It didn't hurt Tablas often releases the wine in time for their delightful annual Pig Roast, and deeply grilled pork and the deep tannins of the wine match magnificently. But if you want bass (no, not the fish, silly) in your wine, as the article says, you can't beat Mourvedre. And Tablas and Villa Creek and Denner know how to make it (and the last two play with fruit from James Berry, too, so you can get close to the Saxum cache at a cheaper sticker price).