Miravet Vineyard, Lodi
TASTING NOTES:
The
2024 Tempranillo has a very pretty ruby color of medium depth with bright
youthful garnet purple hues. The aroma is
loaded with luscious scents of dark berry fruits; olallieberry, huckleberry,
and black raspberry. Aging in small oak
barrels for almost a year contributes a bouquet of nutmeg, cinnamon, and almond
paste that builds with time in the glass.
Savory flavors of briary blackberries and black currants are accompanied
by notes of toasted oak and lead to a mild chalky dustiness in the finish. The tannins
are mature and well-integrated, that is they add richness to the wine’s texture
without contributing any sign of drying astringency. This is a flavorful red wine that is both
rich and smooth. Although this Tempranillo is easy to enjoy by itself, I am
thinking of baked pastas, lasagna or perhaps moussaka. I’m getting hungry. What time is dinner?
TECHNICAL NOTES:
Varietal
Composition: 84% Tempranillo; 16% Graciano
14.2% Alc. 0.68 g/100ml TA 3.43 pH
Oak
Regime: 19% American Oak, 45% French Oak, 33% Neutral Oak
Tempranillo is grown throughout the world. There are plantings in Italy, Morocco, Romania and Portugal in the old world and South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and the USA in the new world. However, it is Spain that dominates the world’s production of Tempranillo. The competition isn’t even close. Spain grows almost 90% of the world’s Tempranillo. In Spain over a half a million acres is planted to this grape. By comparison, here in California the total acreage of wine grapes, all varieties both red and white, is fifty thousand acres less than what is planted to just Tempranillo in Spain. No wonder it is referred to as the ‘Noble Grape’ of Spain.
Tempranillo comes from the Spanish word temprano which means early and reflects its tendency to ripen before most other varieties of red grapes. This is the case for us here in California, but there are exceptions. The Miravet Vineyard, just off Liberty Road a mile west of highway 88, is usually one of the first reds we harvest. However, the Tempranillo we receive from Ann Kramer’s vineyard on Shake Ridge Road above Sutter Creek is usually one of the last grapes to arrive at the winery in the fall. The elevation at Shake Ridge is 1,750 feet and the elevation of Miravet is just 105 feet. I suspect this difference in elevation is responsible for the different harvest times.
The most renown Tempranillo wines are produced in Rioja and Ribera del Duero and are rarely 100% Tempranillo. Some of the grapes frequently blended with Tempranillo are Carignane, Graciano, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. We have found that Graciano adds some color and acidity to the wine and have employed this variety in volumes ranging from 6% to 24% of the blend depending on the vintage.
Gold Medal - Ca State Fair Wine Competition 2026
The price of this product varies with the quantity of products ordered in the category "Mix and Match"
| Qty | Unit Price |
| 1 - 11 | $30.00 |
| 12 + | $30.00 $27.00 |
|
