Today is International Tempranillo Day and to celebrate wine lovers all over the world are drinking tempranillo today.  And wine writers, like me, are writing about tempranillo all over the Internet.  Why?  … Why not?  It’s always fun to explore different varieties of wine, and it’s always fun to come together with your fellow wine aficionados to celebrate a style of wine.

While I’m not a stranger to tempranillo, I have to admit that it’s been a long time since we’ve reviewed any on this site.  And I think this is the first American tempranillo we’ve reviewed — all others being from Spain.  But there are actually a number of producers in California (and other regions) making great wine with tempranillo grapes.

¡Viva Yo! from Bodegas Paso Robles is from the Central Coast appellation, despite the “Paso Robles” in the name of the producer.  While some of the fruit in this wine is from Paso Robles, not 100% is, therefore requiring the appellation be the broader Central Coast.  Specifically, this wine has tempranillo from Santa Ana Valley Vineyard in Tres Piños and from Starr Ranch in Paso Robles.  This wine also has 10% cabernet sauvignon, which comes from Rancho Encino Vineyard in Paso Robles.

This is a small production wine too, which makes it special to wine geeks like me.  Only 501 cases of this wine were produced, so you won’t find it in every wine shop.

The nose has outstanding intensity, with aromas of plums, raisins and coffee.  It has a lot of depth and character to it too.  It’s the type of wine that I spend more time smelling than drinking, just because the aromas are so fascinating.  But then again, the palate is pretty interesting too.

It has loads of jammy fruit up front, like plum and cherry.  Towards the mid-palate it becomes more tart and spicy, while the finish leaves you with mouth-watering fruit flavors and an aromatic herbal twist.  At my first sip, I thought that the concentration of the fruit may become too much, but by the third sip my palate had adjusted and found it balanced – although powerful.  The acidity is stellar and the mouth feel nice.  All in all, this is a really nice wine.

Whether it’s this wine or another tempranillo, I encourage you to pick up a bottle of tempranillo today to celebrate with us.  Let us know what you’re enjoying today.  Even if you’re not reading this on the official Tempranillo Day, may your own day!  Cheers!

Wine: Bodegas Paso Robles ¡Viva Yo! Tempranillo
Variety: 90% tempranillo, 10% cabernet sauvignon
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 92
Price:  $24.00

Find Bodegas Paso Robles ¡Viva Yo! Tempranillo with Snooth

Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

I stopped by Wild Oats after dinner last night to pick up some dessert to go.  I found some awesome looking chocolate chunk brownies and on the way home was thinking “I need to open a nice bottle of red to enjoy with these.”  So I got home and reviewed the selections on hand – as well as the priorities for Cheap Wine Ratings posts – and pulled Familia Sanchez 2005 Tempranillo and Syrah from the rack.

After all this anticipation, I was utterly disappointed.  The brownies where good, but the wine… not so much.  I would call this another Trader Joe’s dud.  (I’ll save my “rant on Trader Joe’s” for another time.)

The nose on this wine is much more interesting and enjoyable than the palate.  It has a complex floral, fruity, alcohol-y nose.  In fact, the aromas were just teasing and making me excited about tasting this wine. 

And then, thud… the taste is short on fruit and off-balance with heavy tannins. The finish is very long, but that length featured bitter tannins and weak, uninteresting fruit.

Just for the record, I did taste this wine before diving into the delicious brownies.  So my palate was not skewed by the delectable chocolate-y sweetness.  The brownies were moist, and full of big chunks of chocolate.  They get a big thumbs up and I have to give a shout out to Dancing Deer Baking Company for creating them.  Yummy!

Wine: Famila Sanchez
Varietal: Tempranillo & Syrah Blend
Alcohol: 13.5% 
Rating: 76

Today it’s a followup to Tasting Tempranillo with a Tempranillo Blend.  This one is Vega Sindoa 2005Red Wine, which is 70% Tempranillo and 30% Merlot.  It comes from the Navarra region in Spain.

Similar to the Osborne Solaz Tempranillo Blend, I again was pleased with this compared to most pure Tempranillo that I tried.  There was a lot more fruit present in this than I found in pure Tempranillo.

The negative with this one is it is a bit on the sweet side.  In fact, I would say it’s almost unnaturally sweet.  I’m not talking dessert wine, but it just has a lot of sugars.  It makes me suspicious that it was sweetened to cover up undesirable flavors.  That said, it is quite enjoyable to drink – just not as complex/interesting as some other wines. 

This would probably be a good wine for making sangria.  Sangria was my first real drink.  I tried it when I was 13 on a trip to Spain and I’m still a fan.

Wine Tasting

My thoughts on this wine:  It has an earthy, herby nose. The palate is interesting with strawberries (sweetened strawberries) and chocolate as the dominant characteristics. A decent finish with a bit of complexity.  This is actually a nice wine to enjoy with chocolates.

 My rating came out to an 85.  I will probably buy this again, as it is a good deal at $6.99.  Try it on it’s own or in some sangria.

Today has been an exciting wine day.  In part because I tried Osborne Solaz Tempranillo Blend for the first time (yummy).  But that’s not all.  The Wine Blogging Wednesday #35 roundup was published (with my first appearance) and the topic for WBW #36 was announced — Let’s Get Naked.

No that’s not what you think.  The theme is Naked Chardonnay.  You know, the un-oaked kind.  I swear the planets are aligned for me lately.  As you may know, I’m right in the middle of my Chardonnay Challenge and they throw this one at me, what fun.  I get to drink chardonnay naked…  er, um naked chardonnay.  

So I stopped at one of my favorite wine shops on the way home from work to see what I could find.  I looked around for a bit and I found one, but I always like to try a few within a theme.  So I asked the “expert” employee if they had any others and got a peculiar look when I asked for naked chardonnay.  He ran all over the store looking, telling me they didn’t have any (meanwhile I found two more) then he made a phone call and tracked down a fourth one for me.  So I’m ready to go.

But on to today’s tasting. 

I promised to follow up Tasting Tempranillo, my review of six pure Tempranillos, with a review of some Tempranillo blends.  Tonight I tried my first one and it was fantastic.

Osborne Solaz 2004, a blend of 80% Tempranillo / 20% Cabernet Sauvignon.  I mentioned in my Tasting Tempranillo post that I thought tempranillo would be better in a blend and is a great example of what I was expecting.

This wine is simply delightful and at $8.99 it’s not a bad deal.  It comes from the Tierra de Castilla region of Spain. 

This wine has a nice complexity to it.  I found it downright exciting.  Cherries and berries fill your palate, accompanied by woody/earthy undertones.  The finish is dynamic too with smooth silky tannins and a crisp, peppery snap on the tip of your tongue. 

The nose was a bit subtle, which is why I only gave it an 89.  But it is an exceptionally enjoyable wine that I will buy again.

Although I’m not quite finished with the Chardonnay Challenge, I’m going to interrupt that series to take part in Wine Blogging Wednesday.

I’m so excited to be taking part in Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW).  Although it’s my first, this is WBW #35 and the theme is Spanish Wines for under $10.  One month after I started this blog and they pick Spanish wine under $10… that’s my niche!  It’s like they knew I was coming.  And to make even more of a coincidence, WBW is hosted this month by wine-girl.net — another wine blogger right here in Cincinnati.

I’m a huge fan of Spanish Wines, they are perfect for a bargain wine hunter like me.  Just last month I posted Project Garnacha and Mas Garnacha, my review of various Grenaches (mostly Spanish).  Be sure to check out those posts if you’re looking for some good, cheap Spanish wine.  As you’ll see, I like to explore a variety in depth versus just doing single random posts on whatever I pick up.

But alas, I can’t just milk that post for this event, I need to drink more wine!   And so it’s on to Tempranillo. 

Tempranillo is native to Spain and is the main variety in Rioja wines.  It is typically not produced as a single varietal, but rather is bottled in blends.  Nonetheless, I wanted to explore Tempranillo in its pure form.  I found six different brands of 100% Tempranillo to taste (all under $10). 

Part of the challenge presented for WBW was to try wines other than those from Rioja.  The Tempranillo I tasted was from Catalonia, Castilla-La Mancha, La Rioja, and Valencia.  A nice broad representation of regions.

My overall verdict is that Tempranillo should be consumed in blends and not as a stand alone varietal.  By nature it is not a very acidic wine, nor is it high in sugar content.  The result is a mediocre and rather boring wine.  I much prefer the fruit-forward taste of Grenache, but then again that can be too much of a fruit bomb.  Blend the two and chances are you’ll have a nice wine. 

Top Pick

One bottle did stand out as quite enjoyable: Raimat 2003. 

Raimat is from the Costers del Segre Denominación de Origen, where Raimat has a single-estate subzone.  This is a nicely balanced wine with smooth tannins.  While not overly fruity, it does have an enjoyable plum and black cherry flavor.  The finish was a bit quick.  I rated it an 89 and I would buy this again.  It would have scored better with a longer finish and that was my biggest disappointment with this wine… I wanted it to last longer.

 At $9.99, it was one of the more expensive bottles I tried.  But I think it’s worth the price.

Best Value Pick

My pick for Best Value was Protocolo 2004.  Protocolo is from Castilla-La Mancha in central Spain.  It shouldn’t be new to anyone who has looked at low priced Spanish wine before.  It has nice chocolate and black cherry flavors with a spicy finish.  Surprisingly complex for $6.99, but I would gladly spring the extra three bucks to upgrade to Raimat.  I gave Protocolo an 85. 

More Tempranillo

The other wines I tasted were fair to poor.  Cortijo III 2005($8.99) also rated at 85.  Cortijo was a bit more fruity than Protocolo, but not overly so.  Codice 2004 ($9.99) was also fair and earned an 83 with its chocolate and black currant flavors.  Codice also stood out with a nice long finish. 

Not so good were Finca Solano 2003 ($8.29) which was slightly off balance and got a 78 and Manoamano 2004 ($9.99) which was simply horrible (oxidized, metallic, brown) and came in with a pitiful 57.  It always bums be out when a ten dollar wine sucks.  You could argue that it was just a bad bottle, but my response is that if the producer wanted to ensure quality they would switch to screw caps.  (Yes, I just said that… corks are romantic and a fun part of the wine ritual, but they are subject to failure and I will always fault the brand in general when that happens to me.)

More Spanish Wine Ratings to Come (shameless plug)

At risk of having to rename this site spanishwineratings.com, I have still more Spanish Wine Ratings in store.  When I shopped for this Tempranillo post I also picked up some Tempranillo Blends.  I’ll be posting a rating of those in the near future and I can’t wait to taste them.  Also, I have another follow up to Project Garnacha pending.  I’ve found a few new Grenaches that I didn’t try in the original post, plusI’ve picked up recent vintages of my top Grenache picks to see if they hold up.