RIGHT: Ray Goff, Managing Partner, and Jean-François Pellet, Winemaker/
Partner in the barrel room.
TOP: The view framing the stunning blue mountains from the Walla Walla
tasting room.
Photograph by Jack von Eberstein
with a like-minded winemaking philosophy—that the art of winemaking
is founded on starting with the very best grapes and bringing their juice
through fermentation as naturally as possible.
The team at Tablas Creek Vineyard is proud that their wines are produced
exclusively from the estate vineyard. True estate wines are rare in California,
but all of Tablas Creek's 16,000-case annual production is grown on
the certified-organic property that surrounds the winery. Grape-growing
practices are focused on producing a vibrantly healthy, biologically
diverse vineyard, and include composting, hand-pruning, beneficial insect
habitat creation and cover cropping. Winemaking techniques include
hand harvesting, fermentation with native yeasts, aging in large French
oak casks, and blending to produce wines that express each year's
unique gifts. "We pride ourselves on not making wines that fit neatly into
established categories, and we want all our wines, whether single varietals
or our signature blends, to show complex flavors," emphasizes Jason
Haas, Tablas Creek's general manager.
