Tablas Creek On Vacation

I don't get away very often, but when I do, I try to bring good wine. The trouble is choosing it. This year we returned to the Baja of Mexico, which carries its own problems in choosing wine. For one, you haver to account for the heat, the salty air, and the occasional wafting into your sensory realm of burnt garbage at night (I'm not wrong, am I -- they do burn their garbage at night, and it sort of stinks up the whole bay?). For another, you have to anticipate your own tastes, which can be a moving target at best. So I went simple this year, and brought three bottles of a go-to producer whose wines I have been enjoying revisiting recently: Tablas Creek.

2006 Tablas Creek EdB Blanc 2006 *** was heavy and velvety in the mouth and held up nicely with all that grilled Bonita we were eating. It's the kind of white wine that comes as neatly as possible to the fullness of red wine in the mouth. Pineapples, coconut, and mellon at first whiff, followed by a brief tang of mellow apple and white stones on the finish. You could drink this alone.

2007 Tablas Creek EdB Blanc 2007 ** was lighter than the 2006, perhaps more delicate in the mouth, with fleeting notes of coconut and mango. This reminded me more of a Rhone wine, rather than a Rhone-inspired wine. Lovely paired with all those tacos.

2006 Tablas Creed EdB 2006 **/*** Purple plum color, with beef notes and dried herbs in the glass. On the palate, some briery notes, cola, root beer, mellow citrus towards the top of the mouth as it finishes. Unfortunately my mother in law drank most of the rest of this bottle of wine so my notes sort of trail off from there.