Wine Focus January 2022 - Tempranillo!

[David M. Bueker]

Hello and welcome to 2022!

This year we are going to "mostly" follow the calendar of Wine Days that show up on Social Media each month. That said, January is barren of interesting stuff, and some other months have too many good things going on. So we are starting the year by "stealing" Tempranillo from November 10, 2022.

Tempranillo is of course the grape that forms the backbone of the most famous Spanish wine, Rioja, as well as being a major player in Ribera del Duero. More than 80% of the Tempranillo grown in the world is in Spain.It's also a significant grape in Portugal, where it goes by Tinta Roriz, and is used for both Port production, as well as dry red wine. The grape is being planted more in the USA, but is still a bit player, with plantings in California, Oregon, Washington, and even Texas. There is also a notable amount on Tempranillo planted in South America, notably in Argentina.

Pull up a chair, sit close to the fire, and open a bottle of Tempranillo with us in January.

Oh yummy!

I had already chosen to have a Rioja with Sunday's roast.

I always order Rioja (it's usually Viejo Campo) in chain restaurants when I don't recognise the other reds. It's the only way to be certain I'll get a wine bottled at the winery, not a bulk shipped wine with an invented label.

The Tempranillo I've had from countries other than Spain has been good - I tipped it as a grape variety for the future. I've had good ones from Texas, Okanagan Valley (BC) Argentina and Australia (Victoria & South Australia)

[David M. Bueker]

Excellent Peter.

I have a new California Tempranillo to open in January, and will also dip into some Spanish.

Nice subject, Campo Viejo is always a fave here. Baron de Ley not far behind.
Pity I have drunk all my Monte Real. Usually buy halves on my past UK trips. I see the Reserva is carried locally so on my buy list.

Campo Viejo is always a fave here.

The chain restaurants have the basic yellow label Rioja Tempranillo, but you can buy Campo Viejo Rioja Riserva and Gran Riserva and also Rioja Garnacha - I have a bottle of the latter that was given me. Also a white Rioja and a WInemakers blend which contains Tempranillo, Garnacha and Bobal. All these are at Sainsbury's supermarket at very reasonable prices, from £8 for the basic wine to £10 and £16 respectively for the Riserva and Gran Riserva, and some are even cheaper at other supermarkets.....

However, I have only - so far - had the basic yellow label Rioja Tempranillo and Riserva

Even more wines shown on their website
.

[David M. Bueker]

2019 Enfield Wine Co. Pretty Horses is in the decanter. It’s 67% Tempranillo in this vintage, but has historically had much more, even 100% at times.

More later.

[David M. Bueker]

• 2019 Enfield Wine Co. Pretty Horses - USA, California (1/1/2022)
  Decanted for 90 minutes, this still showed a bit of prickly acidity, so I gave it another hour which settled things down. Dusty red cherry, new leather, rose petal and a finishing touch of mossy earth rode along a wave of brightness, refreshing with each sip. The Tempranillo base (67%) provided all the bass and the Graciano and Garnacha brought freshness and a bounce to the fruit. I put it up against a difficult opponent of a Thai/Indian fried rice dish, and it took every punch as a challenge. Hell of a deal for $28.

Let me be provocative and exaggerate to make the point.

Tempranillo has no distinctive varietal flavour of its own. In the major Spanish regions, especially Rioja, it relies on blending with other grapes and wood ageing followed by long bottle ageing to confer its sometimes outstanding character and quality. In Rioja, these are principally Garnacha tinta, Graciano and Mazuelo for red wines and in Ribera del Duero Merlot, Malbec and CabSauv with Pesquera being a 100% exception but not sparing on oak. As for Rioja, the traditionally styled wines undergo prolonged ageing in American oak, mainly used, the length of which depends on the grade (Crianza, Gran Reserva, etc.) and the modern styles shorter ageing mainly in French oak but mostly new. Wines of the Joven grade see little or no oak but are usually blends; I have little experience of these.

In a discussion on Tempranillo a few years ago, I posted contributions from people of standing like Victor de la Serna and the cellar master at LdH broadly supporting but nuancing this contention. I can dig it out again if anyone is interested.

[David M. Bueker]

I’m definitely interested.

[Robin Garr]

I'd like to read that too!

[David M. Bueker]

Plus I love that we are starting 2022 with a “hot take”!

We should try for that every month.

Extract from a post in 2016-

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 enlightening.

April 2007
Following 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 2007
There was a 4 page thread entitled “Does 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 2008

I 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?

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks Tim. I had totally forgotten about those threads.

Time flies. I will re-read them in full later on.

20220102_Weekend-Wines-Sun-2-small.jpg

2016 Bodegas Muga Rioja Selección Especial (Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja)

This was my favourite at our wine club’s December tasting, and I was keen to try a bottle at home. It’s a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha (Grenache), Mazuelo (Carignan) and Graciano, fermented with natural yeasts in oak vats then aged for 26 months in new French oak barrels, then aged further in bottle for 18 months in Muga’s cellars. It’s gorgeous.

Red Rioja can be made from four varieties - Tempranillo, Garnacha (Grenache), Mazuelo (Carignan) and Graciano - in any proportion, i.e., you can get single varietals or blends. But single varietals of the last three are not so common because Tempranillo is by far the most planted variety. I do have currently single varietal Rioja Garnacha (Grenache) and Mazuelo (Carignan), and have had single variety Graciano in the past and I do frequently have single variety Tempranillo Riojas


Traditionally Rioja has all been about aging, with four quality levels distinguished by a colour code of the regulatory body's seal on the back of the bottle.

For red Rioja

Green - Joven - is a wine that doesn't meet the aging requirements of the others. Bob and I were discussing Campo Viejo earlier; their basic yellow label Tempranillo has 10 or 11 months in barrel, but not the minimum 12 months of Rioja Crianza, and thus has a green seal.

Light Red - Crianza - aged for at least 24 months, minimum 12 months in barrel

Dark Red - Reserva - aged for at least 36 months, minimum 12 months in barrel

Blue - Gran Reserva - aged for at least 60 months, minimum 24 months in barrel

There is a movement among the new crop of winemakers against barrel time counting as the quality criteria and there have been rule changes to allow for that, e.g. defined areas and limits on production.

When you walk through a Rioja cellar you see more barrels in one winery than you would see in a year visiting wineries in other parts of the world, and there are more barrels in Rioja than anywhere else in the world. Muga have their own cooper making barrels for them.

I don't know how true it is, but I was taught that modern Rioja benefitted from an influx of Bordeaux winemakers in the late 1800s after their vineyards were devastated by phylloxera. I do know that I decided very early that I was a Bordeaux person rather than a Burgundy person and I found I also liked Rioja finding them very similar - and that's before knowing the importance of grape varieties.

Reason that Rioja gained international fame is because it could be exported. Though not on a navigable river the town of Haro, where many of the Bodegas are based, is connected by rail to Bilbao (about 100 kilometres away) which is on an estuary a short distance from the open sea.

[David M. Bueker]

I just re-read the first of the two old threads. Quite the “spirited” back and forth there. Lots of interesting perspectives, but I don’t think any minds were changed.

[David M. Bueker]

Joe Perry would have hated this wine…

• 2009 Bodega Dominio Buenavista / Veleta Tempranillo Privilegio - Spain, Andalucía, Vino de la Tierra Contraviesa Alpujarra (1/3/2022)
  This wine has always been on the ripe side, and this bottle is no different. It has a clear boysenberry fruit profile, with a touch of pipe tobacco and finishing notes of vanilla and coconut. Not for the faint of heart, but on the last night before going back to work after a long break…it hits the spot. Glad to still have a few bottles.

[Jenise]

Dave, not one I've had. I remember Joe, but not what he liked or didn't. So he wouldn't have liked this one because....?

Anyway, coinkydink, just before Christmas the dorks got together for some Iberian wines and I hadn't posted about those yet. Here are the tempranillos from that tasting:

2001 Bodegas Alejandro Fernández Ribera del Duero Tinto Pesquera Tempranillo
My bottle. Mellow, shows it's age in all the good ways. Great drinking but I wouldn't hold any longer.

2004 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja Imperial Gran Reserva Tempranillo Blend, Tempranillo
Erik's. Spicy nose, rich and structured on the palate with tobacco and dark berry. Excellent. Co-WOTN for me.

2004 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja Viña Real Reserva Tempranillo
So excited about Erik's wine above I insisted I be allowed to follow with this. Initial dilly notes of American oak and dark berry, but the dill dissipated quickly leaving orange peel and tea flavors behind. Silky texture, elegant, WOTN for me along with Erik's bottle.

2009 Bodegas Muga Rioja Tempranillo Blend, Tempranillo
Vic's. Classic Rioja that seems younger than it is with barnyard notes and lush fruit.

2013 No Girls (Cayuse) Tempranillo Walla Walla Valley
Bordeauxish, some foresty pyrazines augment the spicy fruit. Drinkable but not ready. Needs more time.

2012 Gramercy Cellars Tempranillo Inigo Montoya Walla Walla Valley
My wine. Starchy, lacks fruit and spice and without those, how can you pretend you're a Rioja? Others liked but I did not enjoy one bit.

2015 Francesco Tornatore Sicilia Etna Rosso Pietrarizzo Nerello Mascalese
Someone snuck this in. Grippy tannins, burly, a little hard to navigate. Didn't pass.

2010 Artadi Rioja El Carretil Tempranillo
Good fruit, racy acidity; will be splendid someday but it's not there yet.

[David M. Bueker]

Joe was a traditionalist. My wine was waaaaaayyyy too ripe for him.

Of course he is sober now (good for Joe!), so any wine is too ripe for him.

2015 Francesco Tornatore Sicilia Etna Rosso Pietrarizzo Nerello Mascalese
Someone snuck this in. Grippy tannins, burly, a little hard to navigate. Didn't pass.

I have enjoyed quite a few Nerello Mascalese and have always thoroughly enjoyed them. A 2015 should be spot on imo. CT reviews seem quite varied.

Tasting note I helped put together at a wine store downtown last year.

2017 Cune Viña Real Crianza (Rioja, Spain)
Wine - Red $24.99 .
90% Tempranillo
10% Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuela

This wine shows shades of medium to deep shiny cherry colour. To the nose, intense aromas of ripe fruits (blackberries, blackcurrants) stand out, complemented with subtle hints of oak, vanilla and spices aromas. To the palate, it shows structured and round with a good integration of fruitiness and oakiness. The aftertaste is marked by very well balanced tannins as well as by persistent spicy, toasty and balsamic aromas.

[David M. Bueker]

2015 Francesco Tornatore Sicilia Etna Rosso Pietrarizzo Nerello Mascalese
Someone snuck this in. Grippy tannins, burly, a little hard to navigate.

I have enjoyed quite a few Nerello Mascalese and have always thoroughly enjoyed them. A 2015 should be spot on imo. CT reviews seem quite varied.

And what does it have to do with Tempranillo? Just curious!

Was in Jenise tasting notes....see above wine tasting Iberian.

[David M. Bueker]

Thread drift alert!

[Jenise]

We had this on Monday night with a truffled pasta dish:

2012 La Rioja Alta Rioja Viña Alberdi Reserva Tempranillo
Medium red, medium tannins, medium acidity, medium good among Riojas--medium everything. Nothing stands out but there are no negatives here. It's just a fine everyday Rioja for $20, and I think it will improve from here.