Tablas Creek’s Patelin de Tablas Blanc is a Rhône-style white blend, 40 percent Grenache blanc, 21 percent Viognier, 19 percent Roussanne, 15 percent Marsanne, and 5 percent Clairette. The organic and biodynamic grapes were whole-cluster pressed and fermented in stainless with ambient yeasts.
The robe is clear yellow and the wine effuses a fragrance of pome fruits and flowers: pear, quince, yellow apple. It smells gilded. The wine has a satiny texture, weighty but not coating, and the mid-palate flavors suggest yellow peaches steeped in sage (it works).
The French “patelin” translates, roughly, to “boondocks,” but this wine is anything but rustic. Instead, it’s an elegant commingling of Rhône white grapes, merging Viognier’s apricot, Grenache blanc’s laurel, and Roussanne’s russeted apple with the spritely lift of Marsanne and Clairette.
2020 Tablas Creek Vineyard Patelin de Tablas Blanc Paso Robles
13% ABV | $25 (sample)
