Tempranillo

Some may consider a pricey wine at $26 a bottle, but I can assure you this wine is worth every penny. A true old world beauty. Tempranillo is Spain's noble grape grown in the Rioja district and it seems to grow beautifully here on the peninsula of Cape May County. The clusters are large with black berries and it ripens early. Winning medal's the last 2 years in competitions we now look forward to its great quality as the vine hits the age of maturity and look forward to seeing how this year stacks up in competition.

2010 was a beautiful season for our grapes and our Tempranillo definitely was perfect. The wine was aged for 17 months in Pennsylvania oak giving it that beautiful background of smokey red flavor that is highly sought after from everyone from light red wine drinkers to the red wine wine snobs.. Purple-colored, it offers up an alluring aromatic array of sweet cherries, plum, violets, black cherry, and vanilla that jumps out from the glass. On the palate it is medium- to full-bodied with tons of ripe fruit, succulent flavors, soft tannins, and excellent balance that will accommodate everything from dark chocolate to a succulent porter house steak!

A Little History On The Grape
Up until the 17th century Tempranillo-type vines remained confined to mainland Spain, where they were best suited to the slightly cooler climate of the northern provinces. Here the regions of La Rioja (Spain) and Valdepeñas historically made them their most important variety and they still make up the majority grape of their finest blends.

The grape was brought to America, possibly as seeds, with the Spanish Conquistadors in the 17th century, where it has largely retained its genetic identity and still strongly resembles its Spanish ancestors.[5] Due to its high susceptibility to pests and diseases (particularly phylloxera which devastated stocks in the 19th century and still threatens the vines today), Spanish Tempranillo has long been grafted onto more resistant rootstock, resulting in a slightly different grape style to those grown today in Chile and Argentina. Despite its apparent fragility, Tempranillo traveled widely during the last century and, following much trial and error, has become established in a surprising number of countries worldwide.

In 1905, Frederic Bioletti brought Tempranillo to California where it received a cool reception not only due to the encroaching era of Prohibition, but also because of the grape's dislike of hot, dry climates. It was much later, during the 1980s, that Californian Tempranillo-based wine production began to flourish, following the establishment of suitably mountainous sites. Production in this area more than doubled since 1993.

Tempranillo is currently enjoying a renaissance in wine production worldwide. This surge began partly as a result of the efforts of a 'new wave' of Spanish growers who showed that it was possible to produce wines of great character and quality in areas outside of the Rioja region. One of the results of this has been that Tempranillo varietal wines are becoming more common, especially in the better-suited, cooler Spanish regions like Ribera del Duero, Navarra and Penedès. During the last decade, growers as far-flung as Australia, USA and South Africa have started significant Tempranillo plantations.

Read More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempranillo