A while back one of our readers mentioned we didn’t seem to cover the Paso Robles area. I responded by asking for a recommendation and was pointed at Tablas Creek as an example. I had a hard time finding any of their wine in our local stores but I did not forget to keep looking. Over Christmas we were in Santa Barbara and stopped by the East Beach Wine Company on State Street. They have a nice selection of local and foreign wines and I found the 2009 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel begging me to buy it, so I did.
The 2009 Tablas Creek Esprit De Beaucastel (14.5% alc.) is a blend of 40% Mourvedre, 28% Syrah, 27% Grenache and and 5% Counoise from the Château de Beaucastel estate and was a nice dark ruby color. The nose was very nice with red fruit, red roses and cedar. The flavor was more red fruit, cherry and raspberries. There were nice smooth tannins and good acid. A very nice drinking wine that went well with the pozole we had for dinner.
