Adelaida and Tablas Creek

Adelaida Cellars and Tablas Creek Vineyard

Paso Robles, CA

We spent last weekend in Paso Robles and for those of you who have not been to the Paso Robles Wine Country you will simply be amazed at the sheer number and variety of wineries.  I counted over 170 wineries on the Paso Wine website.  I am not sure how many of these have tasting rooms that are open on a regular basis but it is safe to say you could spend a week down this way and not get to most of the them.  Generally the area is pretty warm during the day but receives significant evening cooling since parts of the Westside area are not too many miles from the coast.  A wide variety of grapes are grown including traditional Spanish, Italian, Bordeaux and Rhone varietals.  We were not wild Wine Tasters on this trip but made it to a few wineries, some new to us and some that we had visited before.

Adelaida which focuses on both Rhone and Bordeaux varietals and Tablas Creek which is all about Rhone varietals are two wineries that we visited.  Both of these wineries are old-timers in comparison to most of the wineries in the area.  Adelaida has roots dating back to the 60’s and Tablas Creek’s vineyards date back to 1985.  Adelaida’s first vineyards were planted in 1964 by Dr. Stanley Hoffman.  His Hoffman Mountain Ranch label was established and his winery contains the first large scale modern facility in the area.  In 1973 Hoffman hired Andre Tchelistcheff, the pre-eminent wine making consultant in America (BV, Heitz, Grgich).  Wines were produced under the HMR label through the 90’s and wines under the Adelaida label were first seen in the late 80’s  Throughout the 80’s and 90’s the HMR Pinot Noir received several big time accolades.   Tablas Creek’s owners had connections with a family making wine in the Rhone region of France and purchased the Paso Robles property because it had similarities with Chateaunuef du Pape, an appellation in the southern Rhone region in France known for Grenache, Syrah and Mouvedre grapes.

 Our first stop was Adelaida.  We were surprised by the crowd at the winery at 10:30 in the morning but after a short wait we were provided excellent service with Todd.  There was a $10.00 tasting fee with each fee being waived with a bottle purchase.  We tasted a couple of white wines, a Viognier and a Roussanne.  I did not think the Roussanne was as fragrant as most we have tasted up north but it was good.  I really enjoyed the Roussanne and thought it was full of flavor for such a light wine.  We tasted the full slate of reds.  We were not aware that Pinot Noir was a specialty since Paso really is not an area that we thought was known for this grape as it is generally grown in much cooler climates.  It was much different than your typical Russian River/Carneros version, being much fuller and darker in color but very good.  The white wines were in the $30’s and the reds in the $40’s.  We had spotted a red blend (Syrah, Cab, Pinot and Cab Franc) that we wanted to try which was priced at $20.00.  We had this last and although it was the lightest of the reds, it was good, and at $20.00 is getting closer to an everyday wine price.

We visited Tablas Creek the next day and fortunately we had a wine club member along with us so we received the full complimentary tasting.  We have been to Tablas Creek before and been impressed.  I think there are thirteen different grapes primarily grown in the Rhone region of France and I think Tablas Creek grows all of these and more.  They have a few lines of blends (Espirit de Beaucastal, which is Mouvedre based, Cotes de Tablas, which is Grenache based, and Patelin de Tablas, which is Syrah based) and then they have quite a few 100% varietal wines.  We tasted a bunch of them.  The Roussanne and the blends were very good and then we also tasted a 100% varietal called Tannat that we especially liked.  The tasting room was full but as members, or friends of members, we received excellent service.  Tablas Creek has excellent picnic grounds and another thing I think is pretty unique about Tablas Creek is that they have various Rhone varietal grapevines for sale.

With all the tasting rooms in this area we will really need to spend some more time down this way.  So many of the wineries are unfamiliar either because they are very small or just do not distribute their wines as much up north where there is so much competition.  There will definitely be more to come from us with Paso Robles wineries.

What we liked- The area is really nice country.  Lots of rolling hills and lots of other orchards amongst the vineyards. 

What we bought- Adelaida- A Syrah/Cab blend and that bargain blend, Tablas Creek- The Tannat and one other (Must have been a blend?  We were tired and this was our last stop).

Vitals-

Adelaida Cellars

5805 Adelaida Road

Paso Robles, CA 93446

(800) 676-1232

www.adelaida.com

 

Tablas Creek Vineyards

9339 Adelaida Road

Paso Robles, CA  93446

(805) 237-1231

www.tablascreek.com