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IN THE SHOWROOMS
WINE: TOP 12 NW TEMPRANILLOS
An American Barn Home
PERHAPS NO ONE ELSE IN THE PACIFIC
NORTHWEST WINE INDUSTRY has done
more on behalf of a single grape in the country than Abacela founder Earl Jones has with
the Spanish variety Tempranillo.
TOP 12 NW
TEMPRANILLOS
written by ERIC DEGERMAN
“People have said that Spanish Tempranillo
was the answer to France’s Pinot Noir and
Cabernet Sauvignon — you just pick the
time you want to drink it,” Jones says. “Drink
it young, and it’s got the power of a Cabernet.
Let it age, and it becomes very Burgundian.”
Jones, an acclaimed physician immunologiist from Kentucky, became so seduced by
the grape during the 1980s that he moved
his family from the Gulf Coast to Roseburg
specifically to make Tempranillo in Oregon’s
Umpqua Valley. On Memorial Day 1995,
a mile southwest of a wildlife safari park,
Jones, his wife and two young daughters began planting a milepost and delicious laboratory for the American wine industry.
“We planted 10,000 vines that spring — 12
acres,” Jones recalls. “The first day, we worked
all day and only planted 300 vines.”
Historically, Tempranillo’s roots can be
traced in Spain to 1000 BC. Internationally, it
is far from a novelty as the sixth-most planted wine grape in the world. There were about
500 acres grown without fanfare in California’s massive Central Valley by the time Jones
established Abacela, but he is the Tempranillo trailblazer in Oregon. Only a few vines
were planted in 1993 at Washington’s famed
Red Willow Vineyard.
Two decades later, the rise of Tempranillo
is obvious. The 2015 Oregon Vineyard and
Winery Census Report showed 414 acres of
Tempranillo were planted across the state,
more than double that of 2011. At Abacela,
it accounts for more than a third of the Jones
family’s 77 Salmon Safe acres at Fault Line
Vineyards.
Abacela founder Earl
Jones with wife Hilda.
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or Facebook for info about
OREGON TEMPRANILLO PICKS
seeing you soon at Kriselle
Cellars!
People can now pronounce it correctly,” Jones says with a smile. “It used
to be, ‘I’ll have a Tempra-NELLO.’ And now almost everyone knows it’s
Tempra-KNEE-O.”
541.830.8466 (VINO)
In Washington, there are about 50 acres. While that’s a thimbleful within
12956 Modoc Rd. White
City,industry
OR — twice the size of Oregon’s — it’s not insignifia 60,000-acre
cant considering Tempranillo can be planted where high-priced Cabernet
Sauvignon thrives.
It’s also being embraced in Idaho’s Snake River Valley where the early-ripening grape is a better fit in a cooler vintage than Cabernet Sauvignon, and the resulting wines pair marvelously with cuisine from Boise’s
Basque community. Rising star Cinder Wines used its Tempranillo to win
best of class two years ago at the Bay Area's Sunset International Wine
Competition.
However, the success of the Iberian Peninsula grape is most evident in
Oregon where more than 50 tasting rooms throughout the state now offer
customers a Tempranillo. Among those is Castillo de Feliciana, a winery on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla Valley that has ramped up its
production of Tempranillo to 2,000 cases thanks to several vineyards in
Washington.
Visit us in the Rogue Valley or find
our award-winning wines in your
neighborhood.
Kriselle Cellars Tempranillo is now
available in Portland, throughout the
state and at krisellecellars.com
And a growing number of wineries offer multiple releases.
Get a Head Start on Summer.
Wildflowers in bloom, uncrowded beaches, charming
villages, majestic orca whales. And with half the
rainfall of Seattle, spring is a spectacular time to visit.
I N S P I R AT I O N F O R T H E S E N S E S
An hour south of Roseburg in the Applegate Valley, there’s Rachael Martin at award-winning Red Lily Vineyards, where she produces six styles
of Tempranillo, including a rosé and a Port-style wine. Tempranillo has
become the signature grape of Southern Oregon.
“Obviously, we are always grateful to Earl,” said Les Martin, Red Lily’s
co-owner. “He’s probably tired of me calling him ‘The Godfather of Tempranillo,’ but he really is. He started it all here.”
Back at Abacela, Jones and his winemaker Andrew Wenzl offer three
distinctive Tempranillos each year for a combined production of about
3,500 cases — by far the largest in the Pacific Northwest.
If there’s an especially stellar vintage, the top few barrels will inspire
Abacela to create a Gran Reserva-style Tempranillo that Jones has trademarked as “Paramour.” Only two have been made — products of the 2005
and 2009 vintages. In 2011, when the six barrels of 2005 Paramour came
available at $90, it ranked as perhaps Oregon's most expensive wine not
made of Pinot Noir. (Look for a 2013 Paramour to be released in a couple
of years).
Jones, 76, and his wife, Hilda, were presented last year with the Oregon
Wine Board’s highest honor — the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2009,
the board named him Oregon Vintner of the Year.
“When we started this, we didn’t think we were going to be doing anything of this level of importance when we came to Oregon,” he says. “We
just came here to try to grow Tempranillo.”
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According to Jones, the Tempranillos in Oregon and Washington carry
characteristics more similar to those in Spain than what often emerges
WASHINGTON TEMPRANILLO PICKS
ABACELA
2014 Fiesta Tempranillo $23
Umpqua Valley
It’s only natural that the Northwest’s
pioneer winemaker of Tempranillo
should also produce our region’s
largest single-bottling featuring
the Spanish grape. Andrew Wenzl
helped Abacela earn 2013 Oregon
Winery of the Year honors from
Wine Press Northwest magazine.
Production: 2,413 cases
www.abacela.com
RED LILY VINEYARDS
Reustle-Prayer Rock Vineyards
2012 Tempranillo$35
Applegate Valley
Rachael Martin uses Tempranillo
to burnish her reputation as one of
Southern Oregon’s top winemakers.
This bottling mined a double gold
medal at the 2016 San Francisco
Chronicle, which followed up gold
medals won previously at the L.A.
International and Great Northwest
Invitational.
Production: 500 cases
www.redlilyvineyards.com
ALEXANDRIA NICOLE CELLARS
2014 Destiny Ridge Vineyards Big
Shot Estate Tempranillo $55
Horse Heaven Hills
Jarrod Boyle playfully refers to himself as “just a dirt farmer,” however
he’s known as one of the state’s top
vintners with his 327 picturesque
acres overlooking the Columbia
River. A traditional program of 22
months in French barrels — and a
thirsty fan club — lead to this being
the priciest Tempranillos on this list.
Production: 243 cases
www.alexandrianicolecellars.com
CASTILLO DE FELICIANA VINEYARD & WINERY
2013 Reserve Tempranillo, $32
Walla Walla Valley
Chris Castillo heads up the
program for his parents’ winery
on the Oregon side of the Walla
Walla Valley. This winter, look for
the debut of a Tempranillo off his
family’s 1-acre site in the Rocks
District of Milton-Freewater’s funky,
cobblestone soils.
Production: 400 cases
www.castillodefeliciana.com
REUSTLE-PRAYER ROCK VINEYARD
Timnah Bloc Tempranillo $29
Umpqua Valley
Stephen Reustle excels with cool-climate whites, Pinot Noir and Syrah
across his estate, yet Tempranillo is another star in his constellation. He crafts
four styles of Temp, led by this — a
best of class winner at the 2016 Great
Northwest Invite. Enjoy with grilled
lamb, quail or Manchego cheese.
Production: 440 cases
www.reustlevineyards.com
COLUMBIA WINERY
2013 Tempranillo $35
Horse Heaven Hills
One of Washington's oldest brands
— purchased by Gallo in 2012 —
enters the Tempranillo field with
some substance. Canadian-born
winemaker Sean Hails pulled these
grapes in mid-September, a sage
move during the remarkably hot
vintage, and his use of just 11 percent new barrels for only 16 months
allows for bright fruit flavors.
Production: 950 cases
www.columbiawinery.com
FOLIN CELLARS
2013 Estate Tempranillo $32
Rogue Valley
Rob Folin worked seven years at
renowned Pinot Noir producer
Domaine Serene in the Willamette
Valley before moving in 2007 to
his family’s cellar and vineyard near
Medford. Folin rocks Rhône Valley
varieties, but he also earned a double gold medal for his Estate Temp
early this year at the San Francisco
Chronicle Wine Competition.
Production: 225 cases
www.folincellars.com
SILVAN RIDGE WINERY
2013 Tempranillo $26
Rogue Valley
Argentine winemaker Juan Pablo
Valot has proven to be a quick study
with the noble grape of Spain. This
is just his second vintage of working
with Temp, yet he's learned how to
successfully deal with the inherent
tannins. It’s a promising relationship with Belmont Vineyard in the
Bear Creek Valley near Ashland.
Production: 300 cases
www.silvanridge.com
MARYHILL WINERY
2013 Painted Hills Vineyard
Tempranillo $34
Columbia Valley
Art Den Hoed’s majestic 400-acre
site on the northern flanks of the
Horse Heaven Hills has produced
one of the showiest Tempranillos
in the Northwest thanks to Richard
Batchelor, whose winemaking lifted
Maryhill to Wine Press Northwest’s
Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year
in 2015. A year later, this merited
a gold medal at the Cascadia Wine
Competition. Production: 207 cases
www.maryhillwinery.com
ZERBA CELLARS
2013 Tempranillo $45
Walla Walla Valley
Tempranillo is one of 16 varieties
planted by Cecil and Marilyn Zerba
across their Jon Cockburn Ranch
Vineyard in the foothills of the Blue
Mountains. Their winemaker in
Milton-Freewater, Doug Nierman,
also pulled from nearby Les Collines
Vineyard for this rare and delicious
example from the Walla Walla
Valley.
Production: 147 cases
www.zerbacellars.com
SAVIAH CELLARS
2013 Tempranillo $38
Walla Walla Valley
Richard Funk selected from a troika
of vineyards in the Walla Walla
Valley — Dugger Creek, Watermill
Estate and his eponymous site —
before applying his winemaking
charms. His presentation of black
cherries, smooth tannins and a dash
of pepper paved the way to gold
medals this year at the Cascadia and
the Walla Walla Valley competitions.
Production: 151 cases
www.saviahcellars.com
RAPTOR RIDGE WINERY
2013 Tempranillo, $35
Rogue Valley
A founding director of the Oregon
Wine Board, Willamette Valley
winemaker Scott Shull is one of the
state’s most respected producers
of Pinot Noir. He’s also enchanted
by Tempranillo, which he sources
from Folin Vineyard below the Table
Rocks near Medford. This marks
Raptor Ridge’s third vintage with
this 2,000-foot elevation site.
Production: 200 cases
www.raptorridgewinery.com
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from California. That helps explain why Abacela’s 1998 Tempranillo —
a product of vines just four years old — received a double gold at the
2000 San Francisco International Wine Competition, beating out 19
entries from Spain.
“I think the fruit up here tends to have a darker blackberry and black
cherry element to it,” Jones says. “That’s much more like what you’ll see
in the Ribera del Duero. For the Rioja wines, it is so much more difficult
to evaluate them because they blend so much.
“Rioja wines are always soft and elegant,” he adds. “They age because
they have enough acid, but you don’t know for sure how much Grenache, how much Carignane or how much Graciano is in those wines.”
In the Pacific Northwest, winemakers often will rely on small contributions of Bordeaux varieties to better balance their final bottlings of
Tempranillo.
“In the Ribera del Duero, they don’t do as much blending, and most of
us in the Northwest don’t use much,” Jones says. “We’ll use a little Petit
Verdot or something like that to tone the acid, so our wines taste more
like the Riberas because the structure is more like theirs.”
Clockwise from top:
Stephen Reustle crafts
four styles of Tempranillo
at Reustle-Prayer Rock
Vineyard in Roseburg.
In 2015, 475 acres of
Tempranillo grapes grew
here. Saviah Cellars’ winemaker Richard Funk is
winning gold medals for
his Tempranillos. Maryhill
Winery is a lovely site to
enjoy its 2013 Painted
Hills Vineyard wine.
At the other end of the spectrum, winemaking students at Walla Walla Community College produce a Tempranillo — using school-owned
vines — that are deliciously approachable because they are made in
the young, low-oak joven style that’s found in Spain.
When Jones revisits many of his older Tempranillos, he’s reminded of
the elegance that comes with age. That’s why Jones and his team encourage customers to use patience and cellar the barrel-aged Tempranillo
bottlings from five to seven years before drinking.
At the dining table, sinewy Tempranillo serves as an example of the saying “what grows together goes together.” A prized pairing with a nicely
cellared Tempranillo is a slice or two of jamón ibérico — a hedonistic ham cured several years from acorn-fed black Iberian pigs. Spicy
Mexican fare, hearty tomato-based dishes and roasted vegetables meld
nicely, too.
For Jones, who knows what to do with his well-seasoned paella pan, his
appetite for Tempranillo often goes back to all those times he’s visited
Spain for research.
© Maryhill Winery/True Fabrications Seattle
“What I like to do is have Tempranillo with something that will absorb
the tannins on a young wine, something with a high fat content — meat
and some fish works pretty well, too,” he said. “I had a sea bass dish a
long time ago in Atlanta at a place called Commune, and I thought the
chef must have made a mistake.
114
“That was one of the most fruity and intense Tempranillos that I’ve ever
had, but it was the effect of the fat in the sea bass that ended up pulling
the tannin level down,” he continued. “It was a fruit explosion in your
mouth. I’ll never forget it.”
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