COULD TEMPRANILLO BE OUR NEXT BOOM WINE?

 INCREASINGLY popular Tempranillo to
share with Spanish homeland seafood pael

Wc30Sep13

                

David Ellis

A FEW years ago Tempranillo was little known in Australia, but in just the last few years plantings of the vine have doubled and indications are that they'll double again – not in a few years, but in just the next one or two as we really take to it.

Spain's most famous wine, Tempranillo is an easy drinking red that goes well with warm-weather outdoor dining, so now is the time to start thinking about it for the coming months. The Clare Valley's Tim Adams and his wife Pam Goldsack are amongst our greatest enthusiasts of the variety, Tim pointing out the similarity in climate between the variety's homeland in Rioja and La Mancha, and the Clare.

"They're all Mediterranean in climate, with hot, dry summers and cool-to-cold winters," he says. "And like Rioja and La Mancha, Clare is continental rather than maritime, and we are similarly around 500 metres in elevation."

CLASSIC Hunter Valley Chardonnay
worth considering for a few in the cellar.

His Tim Adams Mr Mick label Tempranillo is an easy-drinking style with juicy, rich cherry, plum and strawberry fruit flavours and a nice velvety finish. At just $15 it's a great-value drop too, especially to pair with (naturally) a Spanish seafood paella outdoors on a sunny day, or with simple ham croquettes. 

ONE TO NOTE: THIRTY year old Hunter Valley vines gave Andrew Margan marvellous fruit for his 2012 White Label Chardonnay, and by picking that fruit while still at lower sugar levels it's given the resultant wines leaner structure and nice citrus overtones.

This is a wine that's all about lovely forward stone-fruit flavours with those citrus overtones and a flint-like complexity to it. Certainly one to enjoy now with barbecued Tasmanian salmon or barbecued pork chops with an apple compote.

And at $35 and showing all the signs of maturing nicely over the next five years, it wouldn't be a bad idea to enjoy a bottle now and put a couple away to enjoy with a bit more maturity to them around 2017/18 – when doubtless you won't find it on the shelves, and even if you did it would certainly be a lot more than the current $35.

NEED A FOOD/DRINK IDEA? Check out  http://www.vintnews.com We're also on Australian Good Food Guide http://www.agfg.com.au  in main blog.