Help with my Tempranillo education, please?

I posted the following note a few weeks ago under a headline which included "oaky Tempranillo".

"I don’t know what I was thinking of when I bought a few bottles of Rioja 2006 – Bodegas Navajas – at a Spring tasting ; this wine is supposed to be drunk young but I found that its pretty fruit was now obscured by quite bitter notes of dry molasses and caramel towards the finish; it went badly with a mozzarella soufflé with ham and vegetables and curiously better after a cherry tart; 13.5/20 but will it balance better with some age? I wouldn’t count on it."


I was convinced that those notes of dry molasses and caramel came from liberal exposure to new American oak. In many other cases where I have met this, American oak ageing is announced. I was therefore surprised to learn from Gert, who sold me the wine, that this Rioja joven from Navajas saw at most one month in wood.

Should I conclude that tastes like this are inherent in young wines from Tempranillo regardless of the method of maturing?

I don't think so, Tim. Could the caramel have come from oxidisation or heat damage? It is not something I personally would associate with American oak in particular either, but maybe oak with some toasting.

I'm pretty sure that there is no heat damage or oxidization here, Steve. And not, toasty oak either on the Navajas according to what Gert says.

Tim--

If I'm posting this link right, you might find the discussion in a 2006 thread about Tempranillo interesting. Pretty high-level back-and-forth among Victor de la Serna, Victorwine, Hoke, and passionate Riojaista Joe Perry.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9539&p=76550&hilit=joe+perry#p76550

Clinton,

Thank you for pointing me back to that thread. I now remember that excellent exposition by Victor as well as Joe's pyrotechnics (where has he gone?).

This extract from Victor is very interesting -

"Few unoaked tempranillos (often made through carbonic maceration of whole clusters in Rioja – the classic young 'cosecheros') ever make it to the US market. They show the primary flavors of tempranillo vividly: lots of ripe red berries (strawberries, raspberries, Morello cherries), some dark berries (blueberries, black currants, less frequently blackberries), with frequent notes of liquorice and, in southerly tempranillos, orange peel. No red currants or pepper as in the Bordeaux varieties; riper, less acidic and simultaneously more tannic than sangiovese."

The ripe red berry flavours which Victor describes were present on the Navajas and I suppose "liquorice" is not far off what I describe as "molasses and caramel". So this does seem to be confirmation that that these tastes are a characteristic of young Tempranillo, though in this case the "liquorice" element was particularly strong. If I were tasting a wine with this element with a view to ageing it, I would have to feel confident that it would integrate with time, because I don't find it appealing in this raw state.

Tim,

Bear in mind that a wine marked as "joven" indicates pretty much the bottom rung of Spanish wines. joven means young in Spanish and as such it is more like nouveau than like a better wine such as one marked as crianza. There are rules in Spain as to aging and holding wines in barrel that would explain somewhat of this to you. I rather suspect that this wine has seen some heat, not enough to push a cork or stain a label, but perhaps enough to affect the flavors.

Sounds like a flawed bottle, Tim. BTW, if it's a 'joven' (no 'crianza' on the back label), then it hasn't seen any oak.

Sounds like a flawed bottle, Tim. BTW, if it's a 'joven' (no 'crianza' on the back label), then it hasn't seen any oak.

There is no "crianza" on the back label. Indeed, if my understanding is right, the 2006 crianza should not yet be on sale? All three bottles have been the same in taste but the acceptability depended on what I was eating; Germaine liked it better than me.

As a matter of fact, the 2006 Crianzas have just been released in Spain this week - but they won't be seen immediately on foreign shelves.