Grape variety
Tempranillo
Tempranillo, Spain’s leading red grape: its origin, names from Rioja to the Douro, taste, ageing and what to eat with it.
- Colour
- Red
- Origin
- Spain; a natural cross of Albillo Mayor and Benedicto (DNA study, 2012)
- Main regions
- Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Toro, La Mancha; in Portugal the Douro and the Alentejo
- Typical aromas
- Cherry, plum, strawberry; with age leather, tobacco, spice
- Classic pairing
- Roast lamb, cured ham, chorizo, Manchego
- Synonyms
- Tinto Fino, Tinta del País, Cencibel, Ull de Llebre, Tinta Roriz, Aragonez
Tempranillo is Spain’s leading red grape and one of the most planted wine grapes in the world. The OIV counted about 231,000 hectares in 2015, almost nine tenths of it in Spain, where it covers a little over a fifth of the whole vineyard; only the white Airén occupies more hectares. Since the turn of the century it has grown strongly there while the vineyard as a whole shrank. The name comes from temprano, “early”: the vine buds early and ripens before most other Spanish reds. A DNA study in 2012 identified its parents: the white Albillo Mayor, grown in the middle of the Iberian Peninsula, and Benedicto, a variety now almost gone from the vineyard.
The same vine carries different names depending on where it grows. In Rioja, Spain’s first DOCa since 1991, it is simply Tempranillo and makes up by far the largest part of the red vineyard. In Ribera del Duero it is Tinto Fino or Tinta del País and must account for at least 75 per cent of a red wine; in Toro it is Tinta de Toro, in La Mancha Cencibel, in Catalonia Ull de Llebre. Across the border it becomes Tinta Roriz in the Douro, where it is one of the five defining grapes of Port, and Aragonez in the Alentejo. Anyone reading labels meets it under half a dozen names.
Tempranillo does best at altitude, where cool nights preserve acidity: in Ribera del Duero the vines stand at 720 to just over 1,000 metres. In hot lowlands it makes dark, high-alcohol wines with little acidity. The skin is thick, the colour deep and the tannin firm, but the aroma stays discreet; the vine is sensitive to extreme drought and to wind. That is why it is often blended with Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo and aged for a long time in oak. In Rioja the labels say how long: a Crianza ages at least two years, one of them in barrel, a Reserva at least three, a Gran Reserva at least five.
In the glass Tempranillo stands for structure rather than loud fruit: cherry, plum and strawberry, vanilla and spice from the barrel, and with age leather, tobacco and dried fruit. Wines from Ribera del Duero are darker and denser, those from Rioja leaner and more taut. Outside the Iberian Peninsula the grape is grown mainly in Argentina, Australia and California, but plays a smaller role there. At the table a young Tempranillo goes with tapas, chorizo and cured ham; a mature one with roast lamb, braised dishes and hard sheep’s cheese such as Manchego.