The Best Tempranillo

Tempranillo, the noble grape of Spain, offers tons of value and flavor for wine lovers! And while Spain is still the go-to location for this variety, we're finding more and more regions producing wines that qualify for our list of the best Tempranillo under $20.

Best known from the iconic wines of Rioja and Ribera Del Duero, where rigorous standards used in its production help ensure high-quality wines, this variety does extremely well when aged in oak. (The Reserva and Gran Reserva examples of Spain can be extremely age-worthy, for example.) It's those distinctive oak flavors that when married with this grape have set many a casual wine drinker on a quest to explore more.

Spain, however, isn't the only place to find excellent examples of this variety as you'll see in our list of the best Tempranillo under $20. Portugal has grown this variety for use in both table and Port wines for years, but here they call it Tinto Roriz or Aragones. While excellent it is used primarily as just one component of their inexpensive red blends.

One of the more exciting developments in recent years has been the explosion of growth outside of Spain and Portugal and particularly in California, Washington and Oregon. Even Texas is doing promising things with this variety! In our list of the best Tempranillo we'll cover both our Old World favorites from Spain and Portugal as well as many New World picks as well.