Tablas Creek Vineyard

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I stopped by Tablas Creek Vineyard last weekend to walk the Paso Robles property with founder Robert Haas. He and his Tablas Creek partner, Château de Beaucastel owner Jean-Pierre Perrin -- the fathers of the Rhône wine movement in California who’ve supplied fellow Rhône Rangers with vine material brought here from Beaucastel -- have a new project. They’re introducing several Châteauneuf-du-Pape grape varieties to the United States that have never been available here before. (Well, at least not legally.) After years in U.S. Ag. Dept. limbo, Cinsaut, Picpoul, Terrat Noir, Muscardin, Vaccarese, Clairette and Bourboulenc vines could be available to plant this year.

I know those grape varieties don’t trip off of the American tongue when wine lovers think of the Southern Rhône, but it’s exciting to think that American vintners will have all 13 of the grapes approved to be used in Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines at their disposal. Let the experiments begin!

-- Corie Brown