Tablas Creek 2006 Cotes de Tablas

 

Courtesy Tablas Creek Vineyards

Type: Dry Red
Made: In Paso Robles, California with grenache, syrah, mourvedre, counoise grapes
Plays well with: Slightly spicy beef dishes, anything laced with garlic.

With Tablas Creek Vineyard GM Jason Haas one of the honchos behind the Rhone Rangers and Hospice du Rhone, you think maybe he and his family are into Rhone-style wines?  Like the winery’s portfolio is based on these food friendly wines of the Rhone valley of southern France.  The Cotes de Tablas is a typical Rhone-style blend of syrah, mourvedre and counoise built on a foundation grenache. The nose is full of dark bramble fruit – think blackberry – with a hint of cedar. Taste it, and the nose comes through with the same flavors and a nice medium-weight mouthfeel.

The wine also felt a tidge warm in the mouth – like a lot of “hot” or high-alcohol wines, which was kind of odd because it wasn’t particularly heavy on that end at 14.8 percent, and the wine was otherwise balanced.  So it may have been a fluke and the wine was very tasty in spite of the warmth.

This is a good food wine and can stand up to some spiciness, maybe a Steak au Poivre (which is the steak with the black pepper) or Pepper steak (which is the steak with bell peppers).  The wine might even be a candidate for the Ultimate Garlic Experience – take a garlic-stuffed olive, eat it and knock back the wine over it.  Wow!

You can get the Cote de Tablas through the winery at www.tablascreek.com.

Coral Mustang 2005 Tempranillo

This is seriously yummy stuff.  Not to diss Kenneth Volk, because he makes some very, very good tempranillo, but the Coral Mustang Tempranillo is even better.  The deep ruby color sets you up for dark fruit and bramble fruit – think blackberries.  It’s extremely well balanced with the perfect acid/tannin/alcohol triumvirate.  It made Mike take a second long taste to see if he had missed some critical detail. Nope.  It’s just rich and satisfying.  It’s great on its own but would go well with any dish you want to take off the grill or even a nice little pan-fried steak with mushroom gravy.  Or chicken breast with blackberry and traditional beurre blanc.  Or whatever richly flavored meal you can think of.