Try Tempranillo!

Hello and welcome to TryTempranillo!, the Sunfire Winery blog. I’m Stew Epstein, the winemaker at Sunfire.

I’ll be posting here updates about Sunfire Winery’s harvest, crush, bottling and production notes, but mostly this is a blog about my favorite grape: Tempranillo.  Sometimes I will be sharing my personal ruminations on the subject and sometimes I’ll be talking about wines I’ve been tasting, a bit about where Tempranillo comes from and the kinds of food you can pair it with.  Sometimes, there will even be guest bloggers.  I’ll also try to answer any questions that you send my way.

Why Tempranillo in the land of Cabernet?  For one thing it just plain tastes great and you really don’t need to know a thing about wine tasting to enjoy it… since very few folks know what it is, its hard to be intimidated by it.  In fact, if you bring Tempranillo to a party or pour it for friends at dinner, you’ll probably know more about it than they do- especially if you read this blog. It’s unusual in this county and that’s a pity since it makes a wine that’s very easy to pair with an enormous variety of foods and it frequently is approachable to drink whether just bottled or well aged.  Oh yeah, let’s not forget that since it lacks the popularity and “prestige” of Cabernet, there are a ton of killer wines available for great prices.

So what does Tempranillo taste like? Well, at its best think of Pinot on steroids but with more earth and more intense berries.  In a lighter style its often bright cherries with a touch of dusty tannin.  Easy to drink with whatever happens to be on your dinner plate right now.   Tempranillo is originally from Spain where it goes by the name Rioja; it has only recently received any attention in the U.S.  What that means for you, the consumer, is that there are plenty of opportunities to try traditional Spanish styles wines and that there will soon be more wineries in California bringing new styles to this classic grape.  I’ve been making Tempranillo for Sunfire Winery since 2003 and though I can certainly appreciate tradition, this is California, so I gave our Tempranillo a uniquely CA twist… more fruit + more fun = a more interesting wine.

On another note, I’ll be pouring the 2006 Sunfire Cabernet and 2006 Sunfire Tempranillo this week at the Monterey Wine Festival on October 1-2.  Stop by to say hi and try the wines.  I’m looking forward to meeting you.

See ya next week.