Discovering Future Wines, on Can Wine Save the Planet?

Discovering the Wines of Tablas Creek

Day 1 of our 12 Days of Wine Celebration!

These vineyards are farming the soil, creating healthy environments with biodynamic and regenerative methods. This generates biodiversity, sequesters carbon, and, in turn, makes delicious wine.Wines for the Future.

These are wineries and vineyards that are doing the work, in their own way, to be sure we have a long, healthy future on our planet in which to enjoy wine!

Grab a glass and celebrate with us!

Join us at Crushed Grape Chronicles for the Full Story!

Read the full story

Tablas Creek Vineyard & Jason Haas

The Haas family of Vineyard Brands and the Perrin Family of Château du Beaucastel in Châteauneuf du Pape in France’s Rhone Valley got together to find property in California for a winery. Robert Haas had met Jacques Perrin in the mid-1960s and became their US importer. Together, they founded Tablas Creek in 1987

Today, Tablas Creek is owned equally by the Haas and Perrin families and is run by the next generation. The face of the winery is Jason Haas, their General Manager, who is passionate about wine and the environment. He is always on the leading edge of finding ways to produce delicious wine while making a difference.

He is knowledgeable and is happy to share that knowledge. Any conversation with Jason is thought-provoking and open for dialogue. He is charismatic and down to earth.

Adelaida District AVA of Paso Robles, California

So, I mentioned that they went looking for property for a winery. After looking for 4 years, they came across this area in Paso Robles. Here, they found a property that felt a bit like Château du Beaucastel, with rocky limestone soil and a Mediterranean climate.

At that time, Paso Robles was one big AVA. Today, they sit in the Adelaida Hills AVA on the west side of Paso Robles. The 135-acre property sits at 1500 feet and has rolling hills and a creek called Las Tablas.

Why are the wines of Tablas Creek Vineyard wines for the future?

The Perrin’s began farming Château du Beaucastel organically in 1950 and added biodynamics in 1974. So, the Tablas Creek Vineyards were always to be farmed in this way. Beyond that, with the drought in California and climate change, taking the further step to be Regenerative Organic Certified was a no-brainer for them. They became the first Regenerative Organic Certified Vineyard in 2020.

From a winemaking perspective, it just makes sense. If you want to produce a wine with a sense of place, you can’t add a bunch of stuff to the soil or the wine, that comes from somewhere else!

But beyond the wine, they had a chance to make a difference for the planet.

Here are Jason’s own words from an interview I did with him in 2022.

“This was something where wine was just one of many product types that are under this umbrella, and that meant that it really had the chance to move the needle societally we felt in a way that we hadn’t seen before. And if we were given the opportunity to help craft these standards within the world of wine and then promote them within the world of wine and show that it works and it’s possible in the world of wine, that has the potential to make a real difference.”