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¿Todo Sobre Mi Madre? Intente todos sobre el vino. Descubra más sobre Tempranillo con nosotros aquí.

another Spanish art form, filmmaking. Perhaps it was the restrictions imposed by the Franco dictatorship that so restricted the rest of the world from knowing about the talent that Spain withheld behind its borders, but after Franco’s passing in the mid-1970’s and the introduction of a monarchal democracy to Spain, certain aspects of Spanish culture seemed to spread like wildfire around to the rest of the world.   
Among the two key ambassadors for all things Spanish in the last two decades were the two subjects of our Forgotten Grapes comparison today: filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and the grape Tempranillo. Both exploded out of the gates of repression in the post-Franco world and quickly established themselves as forces to be reckoned with in their respective categories. Both produced elegant masterpieces that showed depth and nuance and remarkable vision for something so young and new. And both clearly gave the world a distinct snapshot of what it was like to be Spanish, either the world in which they lived and the people who existed in the country, or the wine they drank and enjoyed and celebrated.
Interestingly, though, the explosion in popularity of both Almodovar and Tempranillo in recent years were not the first time Spanish filmmaking or Spanish wine had ever been revered or received its place at the table. In film, before Almodovar, there was Buñuel and his unflinching eye, delivering to the world such masterpieces as Belle du Jour and Un Chien Andoulou. Before Tempranillo, there had been...Tempranillo. The grape had existed exclusively in Spain through the 17th century before being brought to North and South America later that century by Spanish conquistadors. It had taken centuries for the grape to establish itself in both regions, mainly because locals were convinced that the grape needed a hot, dry climate like Spain itself when it instead thrived in cooler, more mountainous regions such as the north of Spain. But Tempranillo existed outside of Spain long before the grape became the recent international sensation that it is, though truth be told due to phylloxera and susceptibility to other airborne pests, viruses, and molds, the new world Tempranillo had long ago been grafted onto roots more resistant and germane to new-world conditions and therefore produces very different wines than those found in Spain today.
Despite this, Tempranillo is enjoying a renaissance today, thanks in part to the opening of a worldwide wine culture and its presence in both new-world and old-world wines. Before, it seemed there were only two kind of wine: the superior French and the lesser American. But today, wine is grown and more importantly shipped from all over the world, so that folks in such far-away points as Springfield, Missouri; Dakar, Senegal; and Perth, Australia can enjoy a wine from anywhere in the world, be it France, California, South Africa, Australia, Chile, or even Spain. The fall of Franco coupled with the shrinking of
our world has introduced Spain to hundreds of millions around the world. And when it comes to Spanish wine, what better ambassador is there than the full-bodied red
wines of this week’s Forgotten Grape, Tempranillo.  
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What It Looks Like, What It Smells Like, and What  It Tastes Like

Tempranillo looks like:

Tempranillo smells like:

Tempranillo tastes like:

Complexity, thy name is Tempranillo. Most Tempranillos will immediately impress upon you a gamey smell, but not nearly as rugged as Syrahs, Mourvedres, or other Rhone-style grapes. That gaminess, however, will be tempered with the scents of bright red to dark fruits, particularly dark cherries. There might also some spices on the nose of the wine – cinnamon and anise, and also some vanilla depending on whether the wine has been aged in oak. Finally, there also may be some leathery aromas to the wine as well, and also some tobacco. Cherries, spices, leather, tobacco, gaminess...I don’t know about you, but that certainly sounds like the quintessential scents of Spain to me. And I should know; I lived there for a spell...   
With a nose that bright and juicy and full of fruit, you might think Tempranillos are going to be large fruit bombs on the tongue as well. Well, you’d be wrong. Typically Tempranillos have a distinct dryness to them; there will be fruit, but it will be darker and dryer, and there should definitely be a tannic pull to the wine. The fruit flavors will be of dark cherries and ripe plums, and you even might detect a sweetness similar to that of red licorice like Red Vines. You might also taste some smoke on a Tempranillo. The wines are intended to be drunk young but choice grapes and vintages can also be aged in oak and saved for quite some time. So the level of fruit forward in the wine and how strong the tannins are will depend on the age and quality of the wine itself.
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•  The name of the grape “Tempranillo” is the diminutive form of the Spanish word temprano, which means “early.” The grape got its name because it does, in fact, bloom and ripen earlier than the other traditional red winemaking grapes of Spain, and because it produces berries slightly smaller than other red grapes.  
•  The birthplace of Tempranillo is largely regarded to be the Valdepeñas region of Spain, located in the southern portion of La Mancha, very close to the middle of the country. The grape was indigenous to the region and grew so prevalently that it became known as the Valdepeñas grape. Today, numerous regions throughout Spain grow Tempranillo, but the most sought-after wines considered the most important and most age-worthy are grown in the Valdepeñas and more northern La Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions.     
  
 • Tempranillo existed exclusively in Spain until the 17th century, when Spanish conquistadors brought the grape over (probably as seeds rather than vine cuttings) to the Americas during their explorations and conquering of the new world. Interestingly, despite its presence throughout Spain, Tempranillo vines fare poorly in hot, dry climates, instead favoring cooler, more mountainous terroirs (explaining its prevalence in the central and northern highland of Spain, rather than in the warmer south and east). Tempranillo found a foothold in Andean foothills of Chile and Argentina, but really didn’t arrive in the United States until the early 20th century, and even then experiments with the grape failed because it was planted in hotter and drier climates. It wasn’t until winemakers in cooler, hillier areas started planting the grape that Tempranillo began to thrive in California. You can also find it growing in parts of Canada as well.
•  Tempranillo is a red grape; there is no doubting that fact. However, in the last two decades, certain Tempranillo growers have discovered that certain buds on their Tempranillo vines have started producing mutant white grapes as well. These grapes have been genetically analyzed both in Spain and in the U.S. And have been determined to be a white mutant clone of red Tempranillo, genetically similar in every way except for the leaf pattern on the vine and the size of the grapes (the mutant white grapes grow smaller than the traditional red grapes). Several of these winemakers and researchers have taken cuttings from these mutant white grapes and grafted them on to new rootstock and vines, and they’ve been able to reproduce the white Tempranillo on its own. The white wine produced is reported to have a greenish tint to it, the faint nose of flowers and tropical fruits, and produces a sharp crisp wine that lacks a little bit in acidity. If you ever see a white Tempranillo at either your local wine shop or on a trip
to Spain, let us know about it, as we’d love to know about it (and taste it as well!)  
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Fun Facts to Impress/Bore People At Parties

From Brein’s Brain to Your Plate

 

 

“So with a Tempranillo, most people’s first inclination is going to be to pair the wine with Spanish food, like tapas or paella or the like. And that’s fine, but at the same time, people need to kind of thing outside of that, or at the very least get more creative when it comes to Spanish cuisine. Because let’s face it, most of what’s being passed off as ‘tapas’ these days isn’t really tapas – at least not if you’ve spent any time in Spain.”
“So, let’s start out with something a little different, like morcilla,the traditional Spanish blood sausage. This is a great pairing with Tempranillo, as the acids and dry fruit characteristics and even the tannins will really contrast well with the deep iron-rich flavor of the sausage. But here’s the thing: the sausage has to be the traditional Spanish style, with lots of spices like cumin and cinnamon in it. Serve that kind of sausage with a raw onion and tomato salad with lots of olive oil on it, and pair it with a Tempranillo, and you’ve got yourself a meal right there.”
“Okay, sticking with kind of out-there pairings, Tempranillos also pair well with small fowl that has a particularly gamey flavor. Things like chukar, partridge, and especially quail. So grill a quail up, but spice-grill it. Just cover it in spices befoe grilling, or else wrap it up in foil and put a ton of spices in the foil with the fowl to give it a nice, toasty, spicy flavor. Then take that spice-grilled quail and put it in a salad with some pequillo peppers and some Spanish-style goat cheese. That’s going to be Spanish, but not exactly Spanish, and should go really well with a big, bold Tempranillo.”  
“So the other thing I’ve noticed pairs really well with a Tempranillo is actually a blue cheese. Doesn’t have to be Spanish, but a blue that’s got some creaminess to it and is nice and salty, nice and blue. That should have what it takes to cut through the wine and really provide an excellent contrast between the saltiness of the cheese and the acids and tannins in the wine. Go on, try it. You’ll like it!”
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Chef Brein Clements is the chef/owner of Restaurant Omakase in Riverside, CA, which is quickly becoming SoCal’s answer to El Bulli. Minus the molecular gastronomy. He began his cooking career at Domaine Chandon in the Napa Valley and moved on to become Chef de Cuisine at the famed Balboa Bay Club before opening his own restaurant. Plus he’s only 28. My man knows his wine and he knows his food. Each week he’ll provide ingredient and dish recommendations that match up well with the week’s forgotten grape. You should heed what he says. No, seriously, heed it.

 

2005 Bodegas Volver La Mancha Tempranillo

We begin with a traditional Spanish Tempranillo from the La Mancha region of Spain (the high plains area just south of Madrid). The Volver has an incredibly complex nose, leading with a strong gamey characteristic before moving into red licorice, black licorice/anise, and deep dark cherry scents. Very dry with dark cherries and ripe plums on the palate and consistent throughout each sip. You definitely get some tannins on the back end of the wine, along with some toastiness and a little bit of the wood that this wine was aged in. It was really delicious throughout and a prime example of the Tempranillo grape. We picked up this bottle at Napacabs.com and they have it at an extremely affordable price for this caliber of wine. Definitely pick up quite a bit of this, as you’ll want to drink it on its own as the weather gets colder and also pair it with a variety of different foods as well.  

2006 Codice La Tierra de Castilla Tempranillo

If you didn’t have a chance to make it out to our most recent wine tasting at The Wine Lab in Newport Beach, you really missed out, as we had a terrific crowd in a terrific venue for what turned out to be a Forgotten Grapes wine tasting. And while we were there, the Wine Lab’s owner Roger slipped us this wonderful little Tempranillo number, also from Spain. The Codice was very different from the Volver – bigger, bolder, brighter, and fresher. The nose of the wine was especially fragrant, redolent with bing and Maraschino cherries and a little bit of gaminess. A great adjective to describe this wine would be “Zinny,” as in Zinfandel-esque, but it also had less refinement than some of the other Tempranillos we tried. Flavor-wise, this Tempranillo had a lighter, fruitier palate than the others. The tannins were also there on the back end, but very light. It made for a wonderful sipping wine and will also pair with a wide variety of foods, from grilled meats and game to cheeses and especially pizzas (or our favorite, the Meatzza!). It’s available at the Wine Lab in Newport right now, so we recommend either stopping by and introducing yourself to Roger and his wife ChrisAnne (and telling them that Forgotten Grapes sent you!)   

Our Friend of the Forgotten Grapes Tasting Squadron tastes all of the wines you see here ahead of time to ensure that you aren’t getting anything rotten or clunky. We also try to ensure that most of the wines highlighted here are affordably priced ($20 or less) so you can try them out for yourself without having to take out a second mortgage or sacrificing your kid (or future kid’s) college fund to do so. Lastly, the Friends of the Forgotten Grapes has relationships with all the fine wine purveyors we link to in this section. We know them, we trust them. You can order these wines from them online right now and be trying them out in the next couple of days. Do yourself a favor and order from them by using the links below. It’s totally worth it. And tell them that ForgottenGrapes.com sent you, too.

Tempranillo vines produce blue-black berries with a thick skin, which is usually a tell-tale sign of a grape that will produce a deep, dark wine after maceration. And while that is somewhat true with Tempranillo, the wines are generally not as dark as some other wines with thick-skinned grapes (you may remember from one of our previous Forgotten Grapes postings just how dark Alicante Bouschet wines are, based on the thickness of its skin). Instead, the darkness of the wine belies a dark ruby color that shines through, especially toward the edges of the glass. Not nearly as dark as it initially appears.

2006 Obscurity Cellars Sierra Foothills St. Amant Vineyard Tim Spencer Memorial Bottling Tempranillo

If you visit ForgottenGrapes.com regularly (and let’s face it: you really should be), then you already know how much we love John Smith and Obscurity Cellars. They are based way out in the Sierra Foothills in a town called Fair Play, California, and he’s producing wines using so many Forgotten Grapes that we’re convinced we could just dedicate a permanent spot to him in this section every week and he’d have a new wine for us. Tempranillo is of course no exception, and the beauty of this wine is that the Sierra Foothills (and Amador County, to be precise) are an absolutely perfect place to grow Tempranillo – not too hot during the spring and summer months, and with lovely cool nights and plenty of rain (but not too much to invoke molds and rot). This particular Tempranillo has an interesting story behind it: after tasting a different Tempranillo from the St. Amant vineyard, John fell in love with the grape and bought grapes from the owner of the vineyard Tim Spencer. The 2006 vintage was John’s second go-round with Tempranillo, but sadly, Tim Spencer passed away at the beginning of the 2006 harvest, so John dedicated this bottling to Tim and offered up the label and each bottle as a tribute to Tim. Fortuantely, Tim’s wife Barbara and son Stuart are keeping the St. Amant vineyard and Tim’s legacy alive to this day.

 

The first thing you notice about this particular wine is hints of vanilla and wood on the nose from the oak the wine is stored in (16 months in new and used American oak). In many ways, this wine was the opposite of some of the other Tempranillos we tasted: soft, round, and very, very deep. It had elements of a Syrah to it, without the same brambly gaminess or length of that grape. It’s a big, round, jammy version of Tempranillo without a lot of acid or tannin to the wine. Very soft and very memorable; the kind of wine that would do wonders with a melt-in-your-mouth filet. You can only get this wine by visiting

Obscurity Cellars/Oakstone Winery in Fair Play (click here for directions) or

by calling John directly at (530) 620-5303 and ordering to your heart’s

content!     

 

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Go On. Try It. You’ll Like It.

Not that you care, but Tempranillo is my third favorite grape of all time: behind Cinsault and Syrah, but ahead of Grenache Noir and an as-to-yet unnamed fifth grape (probably a white – I’m leaning toward a German/Austrian grape too, probably either Silvaner, Riesling, or Grüner Veltliner). Not that you care at all.
But what you should care about is just how quickly Tempranillo (temp-rah-NEE-yo) has arrived on the scene and achieved a certain level of popularity (although still not as much as the grapes in the current winemaking cabal – this is Forgotten Grapes, after all). Really, Tempranillo’s rise to a certain level of household notoriety in this country has been nothing short of remarkable, given how rapidly it has occurred. And not coincidentally, it has paralleled the rise of