Free on Fridays Wine Tasting — The Wonderful World of Tempranillo — Friday, December 4th from 4-7 p.m. — Tempranillo is Spain’s most famous and well known grape variety and it is responsible for many of the country’s greatest wines. Grown in many of Spain’s most famous viticultural zones, the style of wine it produces can vary tremendously depending upon a number of factors including climate, clonal selection, and producer philosophy and methodology. Join us for a free wine tasting where you’ll get to sample some different styles of Tempranillo from a variety of regions. Stop by, taste, learn, and save up to 20% off on all of the tasting wines.
All of the featured tasting wines are on sale the day of the tasting: take 10% off if you mix any 3, 15% off if you mix any 6, or 20% off if you mix any 12.
The Wines
Prices range from $7 to $20
1. 2014 Paso a Paso Tempranillo (La Mancha) – You will be hard pressed to find a better under $10 bottle of red wine. Good old Paso a Paso is 100% Tempranillo produced from older vines (some 40 to 50 years old) in the eastern sector of La Manacha. Fermented entirely in stainless steel and aged in oak for 6 months, it is surprisingly full bodied and packed with flavor, yet it remains soft and supple on the palate. This is one to buy by the case!
2. 2008 La Rioja Alta Vina Alberdi Rioja Reserva (Rioja) – La Rioja Alta is the benchmark estate for traditional Rioja. They make nothing but Reserva level wines or higher and they age their wines for extended periods of time in oak and in bottle before release. Their Vina Alberdi is 100% Tempranillo matured in American oak for 2 years. As Luis Gutierrez of The Wine Advocate says, “The nose is very classical, with notes of beef blood, leather and spices and more fruit than its siblings. It develops aniseed aromas with time in the glass. The palate is soft and polished, has good acidity and freshness through to a very tasty finish.” – The Wine Advocate 91 points
3. 2014 Bodegas Triton Tinta de Toro (Toro, Spain) – It’s our Wine of the Week and this is your chance to try it for free. Toro is one of Spain’s most extreme terroirs with some of the hottest, driest, and most rugged conditions of any in the country. The Temparnillo that grows here goes by the name Tinta de Toro, and the wines it yields are bigger, richer, and fuller flavored. Triton is produced from two different parcels of old vines (one planted in 1956 and the other 1963) and yields are incredibly low. Aged in French oak for 15 months, this mammoth, savory, delicious red wine sells for far less than it should.