Longoria Tempranillo Clover Creek Vineyard Santa Ynez Valley – America The Beautiful (Saturday Splurge)

95% Tempranillo, 3% Syrah and 2% Merlot from Santa Ynez Valley, California.

SRP of $36 and available for about that price. Sample received courtesy TAPAS and Richard Longoria Wines for review purposes.

From the bottle:

“The making of this wine involved a combination of superior grapes, an artistic approach to winemaking, and many years of experience. I hope you enjoy my wines on the special occasions of your life.

15.0% Alcohol”

Spanish Tempranillo is one of my favorite wines, delivering great value and even better taste. Take for example the Montecillo Gran Reserva, a wine I will be keeping in our makeshift wine cellar in our daughters’ birth year vintages to uncork at their weddings. And yet as good as these Spanish Tempranillo are, I’m quickly becoming a believer in American Tempranillo as well. It’s hard not to with wines like:

• The Abacela Estate Tempranillo from Umpqua Valley, Oregon: A Myriad of Multi-Dimensional Flavors.
• The Bokisch Vineyards Tempranillo from Lodi, California: Organic and Dynamic.
• The St. Amant Amador County Tempranillo from Amador County, California: Made In The U.S.A.
• The Curran Tempranillo from Santa Ynez Valley, California: A Decadently Delicious Saturday Splurge
• And of course, today’s Saturday Splurge.

My hope is that Tempranillo becomes much more common here in the U.S. so that the prices fall and many more of these wines can be found under $20. For now we’ll just have to enjoy many of these as a Saturday Splurge and take solace in the fact that we are supporting the U.S. economy.

The 2008 Longoria Santa Ynez Valley Clover Creek Vineyard Tempranillo begins with aromas of vanilla, cedar, caramel and sweet red fruit. The wine tastes smooth and delicious with lots of succulent fruit flavors, primarily black cherry and raspberry. All this wonderful fruit is balanced nicely with vanilla and woodsy notes as well as a bit of tobacco. As the wine breathes the fruit becomes more prominent. On the finish you’ll find really nice tannins along with oak and vanilla notes. And to close it all out, toasty oak notes last in the mouth for a really long time. Excellent.

See a listing of local retailers selling this wine here.