September Wine Focus: Tempranillo Tantrum!

[Robin Garr]

The name says it all! If it's Tempranillo, there's a strong chance it's a Rioja or a Ribera del Duero, but you never know ... it turns up in Portugal under the moniker Tinta Roriz, and you'll find scattered Tempranillo vines in California and elsewhere. It's an early ripener ("Tempranillo" literally means "little early one"), and a distinctive red grape and can make delicious wines that go naturally with food. Bring us your Tempranillos and let's talk about them!

It will be a terrific informative month for sure. I have a fairly good selection down here in the basement, many Rioja. Do not think I have ever had a 100% Tempranillo but as a blend lets go!
I read on the UK forum that NZ is producing some very nice Tempranillo, quote....."seem well suited to NZ".

Ribero del Duero..my UK contact says especially look out for >>
Goyo Garcia Viadero
Dominio del Aguila
Francisco Barona

I do recall a 100% Tempranillo (locally called Cencibel) from an estate located near Aranjuez south of Madrid at about 400 metres altitude. Here is an extract from a tasting report in the presence of one of the owners, oenologist Alexandra Schmedes -

Ercavio Vinos de la Tierra de Castilla (“VTC”) Tempranillo “Roble” 2005; as its name implies this has short exposure to American oak but when I tasted it a year or two ago its richly explosive fruit quite masked the wood; however two bottles at home were disappointingly dry and tasted of molasses and dry caramel; Ms Schmedes suggested that this could have been an accident in those, but not many other, bottles caused by non-filtration having failed to remove fruit scalping elements. 2006 (€9,50) was again exuberantly fruity (plums), peppery and structured with wood influence effectively smothered; maybe a touch leaner than my memory of the original bottle of 05; a great barbecue wine and great QPR; 15.5/20+++.

April 2019 had an excellent WF on Rioja and RDD. Some very good notes and some interesting history on both appellations from Tim York of this parish!

It was a long time ago (9 years) I went to Okanagan Valley in BC but I still remember how good the Moon Curser Tempranillo was. I have also had Tempranillo from Texas, Australia, Portugal and South Africa but mostly from Spain.

I think it's a terrific variety, and by co-incidence our U3A tasting group is ZOOMing with Ribera del Duero tomorrow night so I'll be back

[Jenise]

Robin, I don't know if I've ever seen a California Tempranillo--oh I'm sure it's there but it's ability to ripen early makes it a grape widely grown and appreciated here in Washington and Idaho where we have real winters to deal with. So notably that one of the big well-known Spanish wineries opened a winery here a year or so ago and independent Spanish winemakers have brought cuttings over (like Pomum) to establish American wineries with actual Spanish vines. Don't mean to be overly defensive and I realize why California is the reflexive American reference, but I honestly think Washington's more deserving.

What's probably also true is that our tempranillos aren't making it out of the state much. That will change, but what will make it harder is that, however exemplary, American tempranillos can't compete at price, and that a vast amount of Spanish tempranillo is inexpensive wine sold to people who don't know or care what grape it is as long as it's a $15 wine and not a $40 wine.

[Robin Garr]

It's a niche market for sure, Jenise, but it's there. There's even a trade organization! TAPAS - Tempranillo Advocates Producers and Amigos Society, of which my friend Heidi Stine is executive director.

"TAPAS is dedicated to wines made from Spanish and Portuguese varieties grown in North America."
https://www.facebook.com/tapasociety/

[Jenise]

Checked out the Facebook page. Lots of members but few contributors, going back to March it's only three wineries posting over and over. Two, I note, are in the Pacific Northwest!

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2016 Bodegas Bohórquez The Society's Exhibition Ribera del Duero (Spain, Castilla y León, Ribera del Duero)

Opened this last night with dinner and later talked about it with other members of our U3A wine tasting group, three others who had the same wine. It comes from the family owned Bodegas Bohórquez and it labelled for and shipped by The Wine Society. Exhibition is their top own label range (named after the great Exhibition of 1874 where and when the Society was formed).

On the nose was an inviting scent and on the taste were spice and red fruits and a whack of leather from oak. After a while Jo said it was improving in the glass and she said I should have decanted it. This morning when I used a magnifying glass to read the wodge of text on the back label the last line read Decant this before serving to release its bold, satisfying and intense flavours.
. Doh!

Two and a half hours after first opening the wine was getting really good, the oak had faded deep into the background and the wine was delightful with fruits and spice to the fore.

None of the others had decanted it, and we all scored it the same. I said at the time it was good but not the best Ribera I've had. BC (Before Covid) we visited my favourite restaurant in London every month where we have Bodegas Trus, it's super - but on thinking later that is 2005 vintage and they always decant it -- and of course it's a lot more expensive.

[David M. Bueker]

2017 Ladd Cellars Tempranillo - USA, California, Sierra Foothills (9/6/2020)
I know this producer, I know the grape. I had no idea the two were connected. Overall it’s a good introduction. There is varietal typicity and excellent balance. The dusty cherry and herb-tinged leather elements make a lot of sense. It’s not too tannic, but has proper structural cohesion. This is all so clinical, but I don’t have much context for this wine. I look forward to finishing the bottle tomorrow, and following up with my other bottle in perhaps a couple of years. This is promising, and I hope Eric makes other vintages of this wine.

[Jenise]

2004 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja Viña Real Reserva Tempranillo
Overt wood with a lot of funk and jammy notes are scary at first (as in, "Oh no, I shoulda drunk these sooner!!!") but all that peels back an hour or so later to reveal showy blue fruit, spice and the secondary beauty of aged Rioja. A particularly fine vintage '86 of this was my first experience with Rioja way back when and I've loved the Real ever since. (True story, we took another bottle of that to one of the city's finest restaurants (we lived in Anchorage, AK at the time) whose wine-savvy owner, offered a blind taste, swore he was drinking a Grand Cru Burgundy.) Good alone but even better with curry-cured steak and sliced tomatoes. No sediment but decanting advised for aeration.

Nice note, downtown... good selection of this wine over the years. Right now drinking a 2009 Contino Reserva, tad modern I feel.

I pulled out this bottle last night which a view to posting in this thread forgetting that Tempranillo is only a 20% bit player here alongside 60% Graciano and 20% Garnacha. Nevertheless I am posting this as an illustration that Rioja is capable of producing low priced bottles for drinking very young but with more substance than the traditional Joven. The producer is Bodegas Las Cepas, an association created in 2010 comprising six growers who have been using organic production methods since 1996.

2018 Costalarbol Rioja - Spain, La Rioja, Rioja (07/09/2020)
I first came across this wine from an unfamiliar bodega at a local supermarket in its 2016 vintage and commended it for its elegance and purity of fruit. The 2017 and this 2018 seem to represent a move away from the elegant style into a progressively fuller and more structured style but there was still good fragrance and attractive berry fruit, especially blueberry and cherry, hints of spice and decent acidity but the finish was now infused with kirsch and touches of liquorice and was more tannic with faint dry caramel notes from the élevage (6 months in French oak), which together with slight burn from 14.5% alcohol started to pall as the bottle progressed. A little ageing may bring better integration. Good wine though and good QPR at c.€9.
Posted from CellarTracker

Right now drinking a 2009 Contino Reserva, tad modern I feel.

That doesn't make me too confident about opening a 2014 any time soon.

Tempranillo is the most-expanded variety since 2000.

This is not due to Tempranillo’s ‘internationalisation’, but rather that it has replaced Airén* as Spain’s most planted variety. 80% of its plantings remain in its motherland.

Between 2000 and 2016, plantings of Tempranillo in Spain rose by 114,000ha while Airén declined by 184,000ha.

This fact comes from a new version of the book Which Winegrape Varieties are Grown Where which is a snip at $60 from Amazon if you want it printed, or for the rounded figure of £0.00 for the PDF which is downloadable for free from https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/titles/winegrapes.

*I don’t know if it still is, but Airén is or was the world’s most planted wine grape variety, and yet few wine drinkers have heard of it or drunk it. I once had an Airén lend from Morrisons (can’t remember what the other grape was.

Source of above (edited) quote is here

Torres Celeste Crianza Ribera Del Duero - This spanish red wine have aroma of ripe black fruit with dried fruit and coffee notes pairs best with hard cheese and lamb.
Grape Types- Tinto fino (Tempranillo)
Serve at 14–16°C.

[Jenise]

Wow, John, you're in the Emirates! Thanks for the post!

[David M. Bueker]

Dubai dooby do

[Jenise]

Where are all the tempranillo reports? I'd haven't been able to participate beyond one note due to circumstances beyond my control but where the heck are all the rest of you????

Where are all the tempranillo reports? I'd haven't been able to participate beyond one note due to circumstances beyond my control but where the heck are all the rest of you????

I would certainly have been more active if I were still living in Belgium, where there are dynamic importers offering a good choice of Spanish wines at reasonable prices. In the nearly 7 years of living in France, my existing stocks of maturing Rioja and Ribera del Duero have almost disappeared. Some supermarkets and cavistes do stock some entry level Toro and Rioja like the Rioja Costarabol, on which I wrote a TN, and many have a French connection such as Lurton, Magrez or Rolland giving them an atypically French touch of elegance and a lighter hand with oak; yes, even Magrez and Rolland.

Reports coming soon. relax.

[David M. Bueker]

Where are all the tempranillo reports? I'd haven't been able to participate beyond one note due to circumstances beyond my control but where the heck are all the rest of you????

I have one more coming soon. Unfortunately I spent a lost weekend drinking Riesling.

Catching up on my aged Alvarinho!