I find it difficult to get a handle on the taste of Tempranillo. This not only because of the effects of different terroirs, especially the climate effect, which affect all grape types but also, in Tempranillo’s case, because of the fact that it is almost invariably blended and is subjected to strong oak treatment in the most famous regions in which it is grown, notably Rioja and Ribeira del Duero. Unwooded
Joven Rioja does exist but is not easy to find outside Spain.
Luckily we have had some good discussions about this on this board, of which I reproduce a sample below. Victor de la Serna’s contributions were especially entlightening.
April 2007Following a post on an excellent CVNE Imperial Gran Reserva 1987, I wrote the following -
I guess that, like the Bordeaux varieties, Tempranillo needs a blend with other varieties for the best results and I picked up the following interesting comments on the role of Tempranillo in the blend from the site of Lopez Heredia (another producer of classical Rioja).
Tempranillo makes up 70-80% of the (Lopez H) blend. “A larger proportion of Tempranillo would produce heavier, thicker wines of deeper stronger colour and of rather uninteresting taste. The virtue of Mazuelo and , above all, Graciano is that they bring to the final product that fine sparkling ruby-red colour and that freshness vigour and personality which characterise the best table wine.”July 2007There was a 4 page thread entitled “Dose Tempranillo have a signature taste?” and here is Victor de la Serna’s admirable comment, which gave rise to quite some argument. The whole thread can be viewed here
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9539&hilit=joe+perry Interesting thread, this, but a frustrating one – it seems the final result is "there's no clearly recognizable feature in tempranillo."
To begin with, the title of the thread was "Does tempranillo have a signature taste?", not "Does tempranillo have a signature aroma?" Yet I see that several of the responses (like "i have never stuck my nose in one and said 'ah, tempranillo'") center on aromas, not flavors (which I guess is the more precise wine-related term for 'taste'). This is interesting and partly defines the problem.
Tempranillo is not an aromatic grape variety – far from it. That, and its notorious acid deficiency, are its main drawbacks. But it certainly isn't a flavorless variety. What happens is that many tasters instinctively rely on aromas to describe flavors – after all, many of the 'flavors' we perceive are really aromas that we capture through retro-olfaction (the wine-tasting action in which air is expelled through the nose while the wine is in the mouth in order to better appreciate certain aromas). But flavor and aroma are still not synonyms.
What happens with tempranillo is that its own delicate, slight aromas are easily overtaken by oak, be it new or relatively new, and we wind up not getting anything other than the oak and some vague fruit overtones. The new oak may also be prominent in the mouth, although the original flavors are more prevalent. Then, in 'traditional' Rioja wines – which are the vehicle through which 90% of international wine drinkers discover tempranillo – there are two other, important barriers: if it's a young wine, the tempranillo aromas will be overtaken by those of the other grapes in the usual blends (garnacha, mazuelo, graciano), and if it's an older wine the long aging in used American oak will have its usual effect: primary (fruit) aromas and flavors will be overcome by tertiary (aging) aromas and flavors, so that the cedar, vanilla, and coconut tones will be absolutely prevalent.
In parallel, the flavor also changes. 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.
In older wines, whatever the type of oak aging they have undergone (if it hasn't been totally invasive), tempranillo will take on its own tertiary characteristics that are independent of that oak – particularly, a soft tobacco leaf character that will accompany but not fully supersede the red fruit component.October 2008I asked for help about with my Tempranillo education. The discussion in response to my post is here
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19539&hilit=tempranillo and my post follows -
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'm not sure if I can contribute fresh TNs to this thread as my cellar is nearly empty of Spanish wines and the availability for purchase here is negligible. I did, however, post within the last week a couple of TNs on fine Rioja under the heading “Easter Wines”.
A single-varietal, 100% Tempranillo, this wine is dark reddish purple with a clear violet edge. Juicy red-plum and black-cherry aromas are joined by an earthy back note of leather. Flavors mirror the nose, bright and clean. Mouth-watering acidity surrounds fresh but subtle cherry-berry fruit with an earthy hint of leather; palate-cleansing and food-friendly, 13.5% alcohol stays in the background. Tart cherries linger in a long finish.
A typical Rioja blend of Tempranillo (85%), Garnacha (10%), and Graciano (5%), this wine is dark purple in the glass, shading to garnet, transparent at the edge. There’s a lot of sweet, vanilla oak in the nose, as you might expect from a “Crianza,” a Rioja designation for wines aged at least 12 months in oak and 12 more in bottles. Lurking behind the oak, though, there’s subtle and complex red fruit, cherries and red berries, that carry over onto the palate with good, food-friendly acidity, 14% alcohol, and soft tannins.
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