If you are in Austin and happen to be free between 4 and 6 pm today, I highly recommend you go to Austin Wine Merchant and taste wines from Tablas Creek. I will not be able to attend, alas! But everything Tablas Creek does is phenomenal, and you will not regret the expenditure of time. Winemaker Tommy Oldre, will be there – ask him about his trip to Chateau de Beaucastel last year.
AWM tastings are awesome, anyway. And they discount the wines they’re pouring, usually. Which, FYI, is not to be sneezed at when you’re tasting Tablas Creek wines – they’re not ruinously expensive by a long shot, but they are high of quality and priced fairly given that fact.
Oh! And I just noticed… dude. Dude. They’re going to pour the Esprit de Beaucastel Rouge 2008. (expletive) That is some gen-you-wine premium juice, Austin. If you can possibly manage it, get your wine drinking self to this tasting, my friends. And then tell me what you thought! You don’t mind me living vicariously through you, right? Awesome.