Tempranillo Time

We greatly enjoy making the wines we love, such as Zinfandel, Primitivo, Barbera, and Syrah. But we also really enjoy the fun in making and sharing the experience of lesser known varietals such as Pinotage and Tempranillo.

Several of our varietals are still fermenting, and we've pressed off our Syrah, filling 4 lovely barrels with dark cherry red wine. It was great to get the Syrah in barrels to make room for our Tempranillo grapes, which should come in on Sunday.

Tempranillo is a red grape variety from Spain. It's been compared to Chianti and Sangiovese, because of its medium body and color, and because it has traditionally been blended with other varietals. But in recent years, Tempranillo is finding a home in California as a single varietal wine. Since many of the vineyards of California are near the same latitude as Spain and enjoy a similar climate, California winemakers are beginning to experiment with the Tempranillo grape. At present, the acreage of Tempranillo in California is small, but I believe we'll be seeing more wines made from pure Tempranillo in the future. At any rate, there will be one here at Tanis Vineyards!

Tempranillo makes wines with good color and fruit forward flavors, along with low acid and low tannins. This makes it an easy drinking style of wine that matches very well with a range of foods. Should be fun!


Construction continues. Framing inside will be done on Monday, and the rock wall face is finished but the door has not yet been placed. We hope to have the remodel complete before the end of October.