Maybe the most atmospheric harvest #photo I’ve ever seen. Taken last Wednesday morning around 4am by #TablasCreek’s Vineyard Manager Jordy Lonborg.
That's the nearly-full moon behind some high clouds, with the stacks of empty picking bins in the foreground. There are moments of beauty every day out here. At this time of year, most nights, too.
I’m so looking forward to this week’s #TablasCreek #InstagramLive conversation with winemaker Steve Edmunds! Steve, who just announced his retirement, is winemaker and owner of Edmunds St. John winery, one of the pioneers of the #RhoneRangers movement and this year's Rhone Rangers Lifetime Achievement honoree. Join us on the Tablas Creek Instagram feed tomorrow at noon Pacific.
I'm so looking forward to my #TablasCreek #InstagramLive conversation this week. Bill Easton, proprietor of Domaine de la Terre Rouge and Easton Wines, is a great winemaker, a passionate advocate for the Sierra Foothills, and the 2016 #RhoneRangers Lifetime Achievement Award winner. I learn something from him every time we talk. He was I hope you can join us tomorrow.
I’ve been talking to lots of (figurative) rock stars for my #TablasCreek Instagram Live conversations this spring. This Wednesday I’ll get to speak with a literal rock star. Can’t wait to get to discuss her wine journey with #Pink!
https://tablascreek.com/events/conversation_with_jason_featuring_alecia_moore
I enjoyed this #TablasCreek blog — both the research for it and the writing of it — as much as I have any in a long time. The Rocks District is a remarkable AVA, making distinctive wines, and yet most of the producers there can’t use the AVA name on their labels because they make their wines 15 minutes away, across a state line. https://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2024/05/you-arent-hearing-as-much-about-the-rocks-district-as-you-should-be-youll-likely-be-surprised-why.html
I could not be more excited for my guest for today's #InstagramLive conversation. @andrewcjefford is a lyrical and thoughtful creator of language, who Karen MacNeil called our "greatest living wine writer". Join us today at noon Pacific on the #TablasCreek IG feed!
Our #TablasCreek boxed wine experiment made the front page of the #SanFranciscoChronicle today!
What a pleasure my #TablasCreek #InstagramLive conversation with #OwenBargreen was this week. We talked about how he balances a full-time career as a clinical psychologist with the demands of producing hundreds of tasting reports and thousands of wine notes each year, what stories he likes to tell and why he doesn't publish negative reviews, and took a deep dive into his recent report on the 2020, 21 & 22 vintages in Paso Robles.
Archived on the Tablas IG feed and at https://vimeo.com/925585271
What a pleasure that #TablasCreek Instagram Live with Brianne Cohen was yesterday. We talked about her discovery of wine, her event planning career, and the cataclysm in March 2020 that forced her reinvention hosting virtual wine events and launching into a career as a writer. She shared where wine journalism often falls short, why she thinks the further you zoom out from a glass of wine, the more interesting the story gets, and lots more. Archived on IG and at https://vimeo.com/920256765
What a pleasure my #TablasCreek conversation with @wblakegray was. If you missed it, we talked about how he chooses stories to write about, why he rarely blogs these days, how his journalism background impacts his approach, and lots more. The archived convo: https://vimeo.com/911279794
I'm very much looking forward to my #TablasCreek #InstagramLive conversation this week with #WineSearcher's @wblakegray. He brings a journalistic sensibility to the wine world that's rare, and he isn't afraid to take on tough or controversial issues. Join us tomorrow at noon Pacific!
A triptych on how we’re trying at #TablasCreek to combine the wealth of microbial activity from our compost pile and the lovely water that’s been falling from the sky this winter. We align our compost pile perpendicular to the flow of water in the center of the vineyard so that water is infused with the nutrients as it flows through. Then we catch that water in a series of basins. And finally we pump it from the basins back into our vineyard blocks between rainstorms. Win-win-win.
I’m so looking forward to my #TablasCreek #InstagramLive conversation this week! Eric Guido is producing some of the most interesting writing and review content available through his work for #VinousMedia. I hope you can join us tomorrow.
I wrote a #tablascreek blog this week with some of my favorite winter #sunset #photos from the last few months. If you’ve only visited California wine country in the summer, you’re missing out.
https://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2024/01/winter-means-the-best-vineyard-sunsets-.html
What a difference a year makes. This week last year we were in the middle of a 3-week stretch where four separate atmospheric rivers slammed into the California Central Coast, bringing 20 inches of rain and producing flooding.
This year things have been positively benign, with regular gentle rain and moderate temperatures. I dove into what this all means in this week’s #TablasCreek blog. https://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2024/01/a-welcome-gentle-start-to-the-paso-robles-rainy-season.html
I asked my team at #TablasCreek to share their most memorable #wines from 2023 and wrote their responses up into this week's blog. From my intro:
"This is always one of my favorite blogs to put together. I love seeing the breadth of wine interests of the Tablas Creek team. More than that, I love seeing what inspired them."
If you had a particularly memorable wine in 2023, I’d love to hear about it.
https://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2023/12/our-most-memorable-wines-of-2023.html
Loving the views we’re getting between waves of this storm. This is one of my favorite #photos I’ve gotten out at #TablasCreek, looking west over the greening #vineyard toward the Santa Lucia Mountains.
My vote for the biggest challenge to #wine over the next decade? A powerful neo-Prohibitionist movement led by the WHO pushing the message "no level of alcohol consumption is safe".
Alcohol abuse has massive negative personal and societal consequences. But low-to-moderate consumption generally leads to positive health outcomes. And is zero-risk a viable goal? My #TablasCreek blog this week dives in. https://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2023/12/wine-health-and-the-fools-gold-of-zero-risk.html
My #TablasCreek Instagram Live conversation today is a special one. Francois is the person, outside of my dad, whose approach to #wine (and business, and family) has had the greatest impact on how I think about things. I hope you can join us at noon Pacific, and I’ll post the archived recording of the video after.
