Wine and Spirit

Tempranillo is very widely planted in Spain and has come to be regarded as that country's own varietal.

The finest examples of tempranillo come from Rioja in North-Central Spain and Ribera del Duero in Castilla-León (where it is known as tinto fino and tinto del país), but worthy wines come from other parts of the country, including Penedés in Catalonia and Vadepenas in Castilla-La Mancha.

Tempranillo wines are also produced in relatively small number of regions outside Spain.

Although tempranillo has come to be closely identified with Spain, it probably did not originate there.

According to legend, it was bought to Spain by monks from Burgundy in medeival times along the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.

Tempranillo gained fame in the late 1800s when several of the famous Bordeaux chateaus looked to Spain for grapes after the louse phylloxera had destroyed their vines.

The name tempranillo derives from temprana, Spanish for 'early' - the grape is an early ripener, and is usually harvested in late September.

It prefers a clay and limestone soil, and grows best on hot, dry, south-facing slopes away from water (it is susceptible to rot).

It is highly resistant to heat.

This varietal takes well to both oak and bottle aging, and better examples can be extremly long-lived.

In general, tempranillo makes wines with a firm tannic structure, often from lavish oak aging.

Tempranillo has characteristic strawberry flavour, along with cherry, olive, tobacco, cedar, and stewed meat notes.

Tempranillo is behind the great red wines of Rioja and Ribera del Duero.

Winemakers there often blend this varietal with small amounts of garnacha, graciano, and mazuelo.

Even the youngest of these wines have a balance and expressiveness that is absent from the often harsh, disjointed, high-alcohol new releases from many other parts of the world.

Many new-wave producers in Ribera del Duero are relying heavily on French and American oak barrels for richness and flavour.

In Portugal, tempranillo is known as tinta roriz, and is commonly used in the blend for port (it constitutes 12.1% of plantings in the Douro Valley, where it is the second most prevalent vine).

Further south in the Dao, it is known as tinta aragonez.

In France, tempranillo is grown in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.

In Argentina, it is known as tempranilla, and occupies the second-largest area planted to red-wine grape varieties. It excels in the Consulta-Mendoza subzone of Valle de Uco.

In the USA, it is planted widely in California, where it sometimes goes under the name of valdepenas.

Tasting Notes

Tempranillo wines are associated with the following terms:

- strawberry

- cherry

- olive

- tobacco

- cedar

- stewed meat