The Tempranillo Story
Tempranillo is a relatively new variety to Australia, and is not all that well known with many Australians wine drinkers as such, although is very famous outside of the country. It is a very hardy grape variety, and thrives in comparatively warm to hot dry growing areas. It’s ancestral home is in the Rioja region of North Western Spain, where it is one of the most highly regarded grape varieties, and often provides the basis of some the best red wines of that country. Robert Crabtree was approached by a local vine improvement society a number of years ago to host a mother block (a trial section of vineyard), and he jumped at the chance, having indulged in and enjoyed many Rioja wines over the years, and took out a block of Pedro Ximenez grapes to make way for the Tempranillo.
We have since completed a number of vintages of Tempranillo, and at the time of writing, there have been two released publicly so far, with another maturing happily in some lovely French oak in the winery. The 2003 was our first release, and was received very well, with wine writers giving the wine the ‘thumbs up’, and our subsequent vintages are also looking very promising. Our Tempranillo makes a spicy, medium bodied dry red wine, slightly lighter in colour than our Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz wines, with a lighter tannin structure. The wine tends to show more savoury characters than our more traditional Clare Valley red varieties, and we find the wine very food friendly as a result.
We are very enthusiastic about this variety, and believe that there is definitely a big future for Tempranillo in Australia. Interestingly, Robert was similarly enthusiastic about Shiraz in the early 1980’s, and persisted with the grape along with a small number of other producers when many others were ripping their Shiraz vines out (with financial assistance from the South Australian Government no less!). His fondness for Shiraz and it’s potential can be seen with this quote whilst being interviewed by noted wine writer, James Halliday for his authoritive book ‘Clare Valley, the history, the vignerons, & the wines’ (1985):
“The other variety I really like is Shiraz, perhaps because I am not Australian. Looking around the neighbourhood – absurd as this may sound – I think it is the variety next in short supply. Everybody is pulling it out and grafting it over. It is a variety that I will stick with”.
It sounds quite strange now, as within the two decades following the book being printed, Shiraz has become the most widely planted grape variety in Australia. He and a rapidly increasing number of growers and winemakers could therefore be onto something with Tempranillo; why not try some if you haven’t already, and see if you agree with Robert and the rest of us here at Crabtree. We think you’ll like it!
