Tablas Creek’s top red is the 350-case 2005 Panoplie (composed of 70% Mourvedre, 25% Grenache, and 5% Syrah). This is the most compelling Mourvedre-dominated wine made in California, if not the New World. Its dense ruby/purple color is followed by a stunning bouquet of smoky, gamy, Peking duck, fresh mushrooms, burning embers, and loads of black fruits. This dense, full-bodied, tannic 2005 is the California equivalent of the luxury cuvee of Chateau Beaucastel, the Hommage a Jacques Perrin. Give it 1-2 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 15+. Readers would be hard pressed to find more French-like wines in the Paso Robles corridor than those produced by Tablas Creek. This is a partnership between renowned importer Robert Haas (Vineyard Brands), one of the pioneers of estate-bottled French wines, and Francois Perrin, one of the owners of Chateau Beaucastel in Chateauneuf du Pape. Haas and Perrin run a serious vineyard operation with vines planted on the steep hillsides in pure limestone soils, not far from the Pacific Ocean. All of these cuvees possess distinctive personalities, good acids, and striking minerality. Even though they make very good single varietal wines, I still believe their strength lies in their sensational blends. That said, my two favorite dry whites, other than the blended wines, are their Chablis-like, unwooded Antithesis Chardonnay and the tank-fermented and aged, exquisite Vermentino. The 2005 red wines have all been bottled. I tasted a handful of 2007 reds, which appears to be a superb vintage for Tablas Creek. (Production was down 15% for the red wine varietals and 30% for the whites, thus giving everything an extra degree of concentration.)Tel. (805) 237-1231; Fax (805) 237-1314