2017 Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Tablas Blanc Adelaida District Paso Robles 750 ml

Ever since Tablas Creek first released its flagship white, the wine has stood alone at the vanguard of a small but powerful movement in Southern California toward age-worthy Rhône-inspired white blends. Co-founded by Robert Haas and Châteauneuf-du-Pape's legendary Perrin family, of benchmark Beaucastel fame, this is a winery that brings deep pedigree into a forward-thinking, modern context in one of America's most dynamic wine regions.

The list of accolades for Esprit de Tablas Blanc reveals an embarrassment of riches. The previous vintage made James Suckling's Top 100 Wines of the USA. And the 2017 has been called a "unique and stunning wine" (Underground Wineletter) that is "perfectly balanced" (BevX) and "beautifully textured" (Jeb Dunnuck). With half a dozen glowing reviews, this vintage reached number 28 on Washington Wine Blog's Wines of 2019. And in a recent vertical tasting reaching all the way back to 2001, the team at the winery picked out the 2017 as their consensus favorite among recent vintages.

With all that love, it may surprise Wine Access members to hear we still think this wine is underrated, undervalued, and way ahead of its time. The craftsmanship and the pure potential we find in the Esprit de Tablas Blanc is nothing short of visionary. 

From the opening aromas of honey-drenched beeswax to the juicy acidity of its long, fine-grained finish, this blend of five varieties makes a clear case for decades of enjoyment. Not only is it the undisputed leader in its category, and a bellwether for the rapidly maturing Paso Robles region, we also think it's the best value in America for cellar-friendly white wines. 

Our very own Master Sommelier Sur Lucero has been a Tablas Creek fan for going on two decades. "I can’t think of another wine made anywhere in California that comes close to the quality and vision of this category," he said. 

At $42 per bottle—for the flagship wine of a major California producer!—this beauty will age gracefully for at least two decades, likely more, allowing you to reap serious returns on a buy-and-hold investment.

The Haas family took a lead role in creating Paso Robles's 11 sub-AVAs, established in 2014. Prior to that, Paso was the largest undivided AVA in the U.S., with a climatic span equivalent to the differences between Alsace and Priorat. The recent subdivision has allowed each area to begin to make a name for itself and tell the story on a more detailed level of how their terroirs influence their wines. 

Tablas Creek Vineyard sits in Paso's far western reach, in the Adelaida District, about 12 miles from the Pacific over the ridge of the Santa Lucia Mountains. The Haas and Perrin families chose this site carefully based on the similarities of its limestone-rich soils and Mediterranean climate to the Beaucastel sites in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In the three decades since, this powerhouse team has created not only one of the greatest American wine properties but also one of California's most exciting regions. 

From the start, they have imported clonal selections of all their grapes from Beaucastel. In addition to creating a physical and spiritual link between the properties, those vines also happen to produce some of the most powerful grapes in California. 

The wine is about two-thirds Roussanne, supported by a cast of lesser-known Châteauneuf-du-Pape varieties that Jason Haas believes represent the future of white wine in Southern California: Grenache Blanc, Picpoul Blanc, Picardan, and Clairette Blanche. They select only the best fruit to make the Esprit de Tablas, bottling the rest in a compelling array of single varietal expressions.

All in all, this is a great opportunity for the patient among us to stock our cellars with one of California's most significant and significantly underappreciated wines.