2023 Tablas Creek - Patelin de Tablas Rose

Fresh and vibrant Provencal-style rosé with notes of watermelon, red apples and crushed strawberries. The palate has a medium body with focused acidity, showing nectarines, lemons and mandarins. A blend of 71% grenache, 20% mourvedre, 8% vermentino and 1% counoise. Drink now.

Full box (3 litres) 3,080 g – equates to 770 g per 75-cl 'bottle' (!). Four bottles of rosé in one small box. A blend of 71% Grenache, 20% Mourvèdre, 8% Vermentino, 1% Counoise. Grapes are sourced, according to the label, from some of Paso Robles' top Rhône-grapes vineyards: 19% Lotierzo, 18% Whalerock, 16% San Miguel, 11% Dry Creek, 9% Nevarez, 8% Duas Terras, 6% Tofino, 5% Hollyhock, 5% Velo, 2% Beckwith, 1% Tablas Creek. According to the information on the box (which is undyed, unbleached, and looks like it's made from recycled and recyclable cardboard) the wine inside the bag stays fresh for six weeks. It box also says that this box offers an 84% reduction in carbon footprint compared with the equivalent amount of wine in four 750-ml glass bottles. The bag containing the wine deflates as you pour, so there is no oxygen ingress as the volume of wine decreases. The environment impact of what Tablas Creek are doing with this high-end rosé BiB is more than tremendously exciting. It's groundbreaking. It's powerful, disruptive, changemaker stuff. It's real impact and big impact. But just as important is the wine in the glass and I found the 2023 just as gorgeous as Alder Yarrow found the 2022 . It's probably not as pale as the 2022, looking a vibrant copper-coral pink in the glass. It is laden with fruit and cream, acidity curving deft, generous, undulating contours through the ripe, ripe swag of fruit. A cavalcade of red-apple skin, rose hip, raspberry and the tiny ping of alpine strawberries. A broad-stroke sweep of hay-sweet creaminess, cinnamon bun cut with bitter marmalade and then finely chiselled grooves of rusty-iron tang focusing on the drawn-tight end point. Worth every penny, and especially worth stashing a box or two in the fridge over the next few hot weeks of summer! Difficult to give drink dates as I suspect the wine in the bottle will age for much longer than the wine in box. (TC)

A pale pink, the 2023 Rosé Patelin de Tablas opens in the glass with a blend of dusty rose and white strawberries complemented by hints of lemon oil. It balances ripe orchard fruits and sweet spice with cool-toned acidity to unfold a juicy and energetic display. The 2023 resolves nicely crunchy and long with a salty edge that keeps the taster looking for more. Beautifully done.