Varietals - Tempranillo

The grape responsible for the extremely popular Spanish Rioja is Tempranillo.  This grape produces wines with notes of cherry, spice, vanilla, and coconut with hints of oak and high acidity.  The Tempranillo grape grows all over Spain under many different names.  Though some may be familiar, many will be new discoveries. 

In Castilla y Leon locals known Tempranillo as Tinto Fino or Tinto del Pais. It shows up most famously in the red wines of Ribero del Duero. There, Tempranillo soaks up the summer heat and translates it into rich, hearty, red fruit flavors supported by the variety's vibrant acidity.  Ribera del Duero wines also receive extra complexity from international grapes like Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Cabernet Sauvignon has grown here for years; small amounts can add bass notes of black currants and appreciable tannin, which will help the wine to age well over many years. Merlot's juicy fruit is often used to flesh out Tempranillo's acidic character. The resulting wine tends to be richer than traditional Rioja reds, though these days they have lots of competition.

Both Toro and Ribera del Duero are within Castilla y Leon, but here the locals refer to Tempranillo as Tinto del Toro.  Humid warmth makes the grapes very, very ripe, creating rustic but tasty wines as full of cherry flavor as they are alcohol—16 percent isn't uncommon.

Follow the Duero River through Spain and into Portugal, and it becomes the Douro, the region that's responsible for the famous fortified wine, Port. The area also produces dry wines that are bottled under the name of the region.  There are hundreds of red wine grapes grown here, and Tempranillo (here known as Tinta Roriz) plays a part.

These dry wines echo the character of the region.  Like the region’s famous port, Tempranillo wines are rich and dark but extremely dry and highly acidic.  The best examples come from Valdepefias and Penedes, and labels could list Cencibel and Ojo del Liebre.  Both places offer wines that tend to be soft and ripe.

Keep an eye on Argentina, too, where Jose Zuccardi at Santa Julia is making some headway in recent bottlings, and on California, where EXP, Clos du Bois, Baywood, and Stevenot are a few of the wineries making examples. There are a few Australian vintners making noise about Tempranillo too, citing similarities between the climate of Ribera del Duero and parts of the Eden Valley and Adelaide Hills.

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