An Afternoon At Tablas Creek, Where Wine Sustainability Is Practiced

Tablas Creek Vineyard is a globally-known leader in wine sustainability, which I became familiar with due to a number of their highly-visible and lauded practices, including the widely-recognized launch of the first high-quality—and high-price—bag-in-box wine in the United States. As a fan of alternative, greener packaging—and box wine in particular—Tablas Creek’s (excellent!) BiB wine provides but one, of many, good reasons to think inside the box about wine. Thus, when I joined the program for the Sustainable Ag Expo, and knew I’d be traveling to Central California, I also knew I could not be so close to Paso Robles without making a stop at Tablas Creek.

Touring a legendary site for wine sustainability

It was with much excitement that I reached out to Jason Haas to arrange for a visit to Tablas Creek during my stay in California. Upon arrival, he was gracious and welcoming and took me on an hour(-plus) long tour of the vineyard surrounding the tasting room as well as the cellar. He walked me through their biodynamic, regenerative, organic production methods and told me the story of the brand—a partnership between two prominent families in two different wine growing regions in the world, the Perrin family, proprietors of Château de Beaucastel, and the Haas family of Vineyard Brands.

Tablas Creek Vineyard is certified Biodynamic and Regenerative Organic, and the wine they produce is “natural,” i.e., made with minimal intervention and inputs, including using only ambient yeasts. The partnership with Beaucastel has allowed the team at Tablas Creek to learn from the long-standing production traditions and techniques of Châteauneuf-du-Pape (in the Rhône Valley of France) as they endeavor to replicate world-class Rhône-style wine production in Paso Robles, on the central coast of California. However, over time, the partnership has matured into a mutually-beneficial, two-way pathway for knowledge and skill sharing, wherein the California producers have come to be able to teach their French counterparts some things about vineyard management practices as well.

Tablas Creek’s leadership and mentoring in wine sustainability

Jason noted how sustainability principles are baked into their business culture from top to bottom, such that he makes choices for environmental or social reasons, which then have economic benefits, not the other way around. He feels he doesn’t have to work to convince his staff to implement their sustainability policies or procedures because in some sense the staff are self-selecting into the organization based on its values, including a decades-long history of leadership in wine sustainability. For example, Jason has been offering mentoring, guidance, and tips in the Paso wine community—and globally—for years given Tablas Creek’s notoriety for their organic, biodynamic, regenerative practices.

Tablas Creek’s sustainability commitments are well known in the industry, however, even as sustainability becomes more prominent industry-wide (though that can certainly vary by region), the company remains a bit of an outlier at least for their scale, depth, and steadfast commitment to sustainability practices and principles. Moreover, Tablas Creek is also famed for their pioneering efforts to bring Rhône (and specifically Châteauneuf-du-Pape) varieties to the United States, including places like Texas, the corner of the industry with which I have the closest connection. Their vine nursery was crucial to many growers’ efforts to gain access to high-quality Rhone varietal vines, which helped launch the Rhone movement in the US. Relatedy, Jason is a Past President, and current member of the Board of Directors, for the Rhone Rangers, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Rhone-varietal wine production in the United States.

Reaching for sustainability, one vine—and wine—at a time

In Texas, there are just five member wineries of the Rhone Rangers, and producers there have greatly benefited from the mentorship of Jason and the leadership offered by Tablas Creek, especially with regard to their vine propagation and sharing. The Texas wine industry has been growing for some time, but in the past decade or so, has made the “quality turn,” not least due to the growth of Rhone varietals in the state. For example, Jim Gordon of James Suckling just made a tour through the state with very good results, including giving high marks to some of the Mourvèdre—a traditional Rhone (and Châteauneuf-du-Pape) grape variety—he tasted there.

Plus, other values that are embedded into Tablas Creek’s success, particularly those tied to sustainability, are also gaining traction in Texas. Not only have individual producers taken firm and confident steps towards wine sustainability, collaborative efforts are also underway. To that end, I appreciated Jason’s sentiment that seeking certification (as sustainable, organic, biodynamic, regenerative, etc.) should be a “reach activity” i.e., if any given organization can achieve a particular certification outright, on the first go, the certification is not doing the work of challenging innovation or change.

Jason's sentiment about “reach” echoes the message conveyed by the leadership at Vineyard Team while I was in town for the Expo, as they consider a proposal to admit Texas growers into their Sustainability in Practice (SIP) Certified program. Regardless of how that proposal pans out, though, it has been inspiring to watch Texas producers reflect—and act—on their evolving sustainability values and principles. In short, given my recent involvement in wine sustainability initiatives in Texas, it was certainly worth the trip to visit with Jason, who embodies so much of the enthusiasm and commitment required to do sustainable wine well.