Spanish Red Wines with the Tempranillo Grape

The Tempranillo grape is the most famous red Spanish grape. This grape is black coloured, thick skinned and makes a full bodied red wine without the tannins. Although this grape is a mainstay of Spain, there are new plantings of it in California, Australia, Argentina, South Africa and the BC Okanagan Valley. For those of you that enjoy Malbec, expand your horizons with this new grape. You can find the following wines in the BC liquor stores, or click on the following links for the other provinces: Alberta liquor stores or Manitoba liquor stores, or Ontario liquor stores.

Navarro Lopez Pergolas Old Vines, Tempranillo 2006, Valdepenas, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Price: $11.00
Expert Tasting: dry, light, elegant red wine, black cherry, licorice, orange, mineral, smoky, tobacco flavours, goes with pizza, ribs or meat.

Torres Coronas Tempranillo 2005, Catalunya, Spain
Price: $14.00
Expert Tasting: soft, supple, fresh, earthy, black cherry, spicy, licorice flavours, goes with any food.

Sabor Real Tempranillo 2006, Toro, Castilla-Leon, Spain
Price: $17.00
Expert Tasting: round, fresh, peppery, cherry, licorice nose, orange peel flavours, good as an appetizer wine or with pork, lamb chops or paella.

Torres Celeste 2005, Ribera Del Duero, Castilla-Leon, Spain
Price: $25.00
Expert Tasting: ripe, round, smoky, tobacco/leather, bits of chocolate, rustic style, good on cold winter days and with roast meats.

Pintia Toro 2004, Toro, Castilla-Leon, Spain
Price: $73.00
Expert Tasting: big, warm, chocolate, black fruit, oak, spice. Good with roast lamb but best to rest in the bottle for 5 - 10 years.


Over the next few weeks, I will be testing (drinking) these wines and posting my comments on them.