Local winery becomes first in the US to bottle all Châteauneuf-du-Pape grapes
Winery announces completion of decades-long project
– Tablas Creek Vineyard has announced the completion of its decades-long project to bottle all 14 traditional Châteauneuf-du-Pape grape varieties as single-varietal wines. The final piece of the project debuted this year with a limited, 25-case bottling of Muscardin.
Tablas Creek, founded in 1989 as a partnership between the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel and American importer Robert Haas, imported, propagated and planted grapes grown at Beaucastel. Nine of the 14 grape varieties were new to the United States. The grapes and the year in which they were first planted are: mourvedre (1994), grenache (1994), syrah (1994), counoise (1994), grenache blanc (1994), roussanne (1994), picpoul blanc (2000), terret noir (2010), clairette blanche (2010), picardan (2013), vaccarese (2016), cinsaut (2016), bourboulenc (2016) and muscardin (2019).
Tablas Creek will debut the Muscardin at an industry event for wine and hospitality professionals from across San Luis Obispo County. Attendees will have the opportunity to taste all 14 single-varietal wines side by side in an experience designed to highlight the diversity and potential of Rhône varieties in California.
“I can feel my dad smiling down at this landmark,” said Tablas Creek second-generation proprietor Jason Haas. “People so often think of the Rhone grape varieties as ‘just blending grapes.’ But tasting them on their own, it’s clear that they’re more than that. Each one has its own distinctive personality. We are proud to have introduced so many of them to California viticulture, and to see millions of cuttings from those original mother vines in hundreds of vineyards up and down the West Coast.”
Tablas Creek Vineyard, located in the limestone hills of western Paso Robles, is dedicated to regenerative organic and biodynamically farmed wines from grape varieties traditional to France’s Rhône Valley. The winery has introduced nine new grape varieties to American grapegrowing through its nursery program.
It also pioneered lightweight and low-carbon packaging, including reusable stainless steel kegs, lightweight glass bottles and boxes. In 2020, Tablas Creek became the first winery in the world to achieve the Regenerative Organic Certified farming certification.
