UPDATE: What I’m Doing for the First International Tempranillo Day – September 1, 2011

UPDATE: What I’m Doing for the First International Tempranillo Day – September 1, 2011

TAPAS recently announced the first International Tempranillo Day, September 1, 2011: A celebration of the Tempranillo grape with all its regional synonyms. They are encouraging everyone to open a bottle of Tempranillo, enjoy the fun, and share their experiences online.  I have a group of six Tempranillo-based wines from Texas and California that I will taste and review. They are:

Irwin Family Vineyards – Tempranillo 2008 (Sierra Foothills, CA)

Pedernales Cellars – Texas Reserve Tempranillo 2009 (Texas)

Haak Vineyards & Winery – Texas Tempranillo 2008 (Reddy Vineyard, Texas High Plains, TX)

Coral Mustang Vista Creek Tempranillo 2005 (Vista Creek Vineyards, Paso Robles, CA)

Twisted Oak Calaveras County “The Spaniard” 2007 (Calavaras County, CA)

Yorba Temparnillo 2007 (Amador County, CA)

???? Mystery Tempranillo

I will be tasting these wines with noted Houston chef and restauranteur, Peter Garcia at El Meson. We will also benchmark these wines to a notable Spanish Tempranillo and I will blog on VintageTexas on September 1st, International Tempranillo Day.

You can register at internationaltempranilloday.eventbrite.com to participate in any way – online or otherwise!  If you are a Tempranillo aficionado, don’t pass this up. Find some Tempranillo wines, taste them and blog, tweet or post to facebook your findings, likes, dislikes, rants and raves. That’s was I’m doing.

FYI – Tempranillo, indigenous to Spain and used in the great Rioja and Ribera del Duero wines, is planted in 500,000 acres of the world’s vineyards, making it the fourth most planted wine grape, and that would be enough to celebrate.

Until recently, this noble grape’s entire acreage was almost all grown in Spain. Perhaps others were confused by the 60 or more regional synonyms for Tempranillo, which in itself may be a record worth celebrating. In different regions of Spain, Tempranillo goes by various names including Ojo de Liebre, Tinto Fino, Tinto del Pais, Tinto de Toro, and Ull de Llebre. Argentina is one of the few places outside of Spain where Tempranillo is widely planted. In the Portugese regions of Alentejo (where this grape’s called Aragonêz) and douro (where it’s known as Roriz or Tinta Roriz). Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/tempranillo#ixzz1Vz3Ph8kI

But things have changed: knowledge of this noble grape is rapidly spreading, creating excitement and a spirit of cooperation among adventurous vintners bringing this Old World variety to New World soils. Tempranillo today is grown in many more countries including the United States, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, France, Portugal, Turkey, Canada, China, Thailand, and more. And that’s why we are establishing International Tempranillo Day.

TAPAS is encouraging regional events around the world leading up to September 1, and will be publicizing them as details become available. If you’d like to sponsor an event, please contact TAPAS!