Steven Zoernack Wine, Vineyard and Winery Reviews
by Steven Zoernack
Tempranillo is a wine varietal most common in Spain, although you can also find it coming from Portugal and Argentina. It’s name means “Little Early One” due to the reputation it has for ripening faster than other varietals. It is a food-pairing champion, pairing with widely diverse flavors. It has sweet fruit characteristics of cherry and plum, as well as spicy clove, tobacco, leather, and vanilla notes. This profile of flavors is what lends the wine to such versatility. It’s a first hit of leather and cherries, with a tomato-sauce flavor that keeps it in the savory category rather than the cherry making it a sweeter wine. Pairs wonderfully with corn (I.E. grits, polenta, or elotes) most Latin flavors, and any Italian-style tomato sauce dish.
California has a bad reputation for Tempranillo, as when it was first planted and established in America in the Central Valley area of California, which is hot, dry and flat. This produced a high-yield but green wine. It is a soft wine, low in acidity, and hot temperatures only accentuate this. It left you with a sugary, one-note, young-tasting wine that was mostly only fit for jug wines or blends. California winemakers, however, have seized the opportunity in the last five years or so, and they are utilizing what they know about the grapes growth and pH to leverage themselves into a lush, soft wine. Grown properly, with a well-treated acidity, it is a soft, silky light wine out of California, and if it is handled well, it will also show the dryness and acidity that you want from an old-world wine.
To avoid that softness from the grape, Scott Klann (whose “The Spaniard” from Calaveras County is one of the state’s best Tempranillo-based wines) acidulates it as soon as fermentation begins. Ted Henry, the winemaker at Jarvis also does and his 2008 Tempranillo is very well known as one of the best Temps to come out of California. “The sooner you can integrate the acid, the more balanced the wine becomes,” Henry says, adding, “If you add it later, the wine tastes disjointed.”
Steven Zoernack feels that part of the reason for a resurgence in California Tempranillo is that the market for Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir is overloaded and competitive as they are the most popular varietals, and a stand out winemaker with a more unusual varietal like a Sangiovese or Tempranillo from California has very little competition right now and could really make a mark.
Even searching online for Tempranillo now delivers you a large backlash from wine sellers and enthusiasts who do not believe that you can produce a California Temp for the same value and quality as other reds. However with a renewed interest in Spanish food and the need for a unique California varietal to make it’s way into the spotlight, I think you may see it coming more into favor with both vintners and consumers. Try Bokisch Vineyards Tempranillo, any of Core’s Tempranillos, Fields Family Wines Tempranillo, Albeno Munari Tempranillo, or the outstanding fan-favorite Jarvis 2008 Tempranillo, if you feel like a splurge.
Steven Zoernack Wine, Vineyard and Winery Reviews
