Here we are. The beginning to the road towards 500 grapes to try. It’s a simple exercise.with little pretentiousness. I pick a grape, I talk a little bit about it, some history and geography and then I evidence me trying it with a picture of at least one wine and a brief description of the when, where and how.
Why start with Tempranillo? Well I had to pick a grape and I have great affinity for Spain and its wines so…there you go.
So the basics start with saying Tempranillo is a black grape varietal that produces full body wines. It is native to Spain and cool fact number one, the name comes from the word temprano which translates to “early” which makes sense because this grape ripens way before most other varietals in Spain.
This grape thrives in limestone soil and cool fact number two, it tends to be blended with other grapes due to its natural ‘meh’ aroma. That is unless you age it in oak, then…the marvels of an aged tempranillo are yours to enjoy. Multiple regions across Spain traduce that grape to great bold art. To slightly paraphrase a great scene of Robin Williams character Armand Goldman in The Birdcage: “You do an eclectic celebration of the dance! You do Fosse, Fosse, Fosse! You do Martha Graham, Martha Graham, Martha Graham! Or Twyla, Twyla, Twyla! Or Michael Kidd, Michael Kidd, Michael Kidd, Michael Kidd! Or Madonna, Madonna, Madonna!… but you keep it all inside…the bottle“.
Now this grape has gotten a good reputation and has been taken out of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal grows it as well under the name Tinto Roriz) and you can find it in California in a few boutique vineyards, Australia and South Africa. (we’ll talk more about that in my Grape vs Grape section).
The numbers are pretty cool as well and here comes cool fact number three, Tempranillo is the third most planted wine grape in the world with a totality of 231,000 hectares, 88% of which is in Spain alone.
Now I’ve had a long list of wines featuring or solely made of Tempranillo in my journey as a wine aficionado. Mainly because early in my voyage I joined and was even a member of the board for a short while of a wine group called Amigos de los Vinos de España (traduced to Friends of the Wines from Spain) and I was exposed to a lot of wonderful wines from great friends and connoisseurs. I even had to host two events in which my theme was the discovery of new grapes and regions within Spain. Not everyone is a fan of that discovery policy, but I care more about the future possible extinction of the Solenodon than that. There’s always a cantankerous scholar near you ready to construe a vision of balderdash. In the wine world, you will find plenty of those.
So the wine I’ve selected to present as evidence is the CVNE Imperial Gran Reserva 1996 from Rioja which is a D.O.C. (Qualified Designation of Origin) located in the regions of La Rioja and Navarre and in the province of Álava in the Basque Country. I had this at a friends of the family get together back in November 2015. The reason I selected this particular wine is to make a few points. First of all CVNE is one of the best houses in Spain making great wines, among them the Imperial which won wine of the year from Wine Spectator in 2013 for their 2004 vintage. But this particular year, back in 2007 it was given 84 points by Wine Enthusiast because, and I quote “CUNE is a throwback bodega whose wines won’t appeal to followers of the new wave. And since I consider myself a backer of the modern style, I found this wine too obtuse, funky and borderline dirty to rate higher.” This is a reminder that points are based on opinions of people with particular tastes and although they can hint sometimes in the right direction, your palate should be your guide. This wine was fantastic. True it wasn’t the best year and in a vertical it would have fallen victim to either 1990’s brother 1994 or 1995, but it stands well on it’s own. Creamy vanilla hints due to all the oak it has absorbed all these years, a little too rounded perhaps but with enough impetus to finish and linger as a memorable rioja only can. Being a 100% Tempranillo it fits the bill of this project of mine.
So there we go. Only 499 grapes to go.
