Tablas Creek Vermentino 2014: While it’s hard to beat sipping a rosé on a fine summer’s day, this unusual white is a fine alternative. There are about a 100 acres of it planted in the U.S., but this grape is well-established in Corsica, Sardinia, and Italy.
Tablas Creek’s version is spry and racy, a vivid lemon-grapefruit citrus core with enough minerality and salinity to give it a pleasing edge. Refreshing, thy name is Vermentino.
Not surprisingly Tablas Creek gives this somewhat rustic grape traditional treatment — whole cluster pressing, using native yeasts. They then age in stainless, to keep the wine lean and far from mean, for this doesn’t need any oak or extra tannins.