History
For many years, people thought Tempranillo was related to Pinot Noir, but that was debunked by researchers at The Institute of Sciences of the Vine and Wine in Rioja and the Madrid Institute for Research and Rural Development, Agriculture and Food. What they found is that Tempranillo’s parents are Albillo, a white grape that is grown today in Castilla y León, and Benedicto, a rare variety planted in Aragon in eastern Spain.
The first reliable evidence of the existence of this grape can be dated back to the early 19th century, when the variety was singled out for praise in both Rioja’s Logroño district, and Peralta in Navarra, suggesting a local/regional origin. Spanish cultivation of Vitis vinifera, the common ancestor of most wine grapes in existence today, began in earnest with Phoenician settlement in the southern provinces. Later, according to the Roman writer Columella, grapes were grown all over Spain, yet there are only scattered references to the name "Tempranillo.” This is presumably because in many places, like the Valdepeñas region, it was the main indigenous variety and assumed to be a different grape. Prior to the 17th century, Tempranillo-type vines remained confined to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) where they were best suited to the slightly cooler climate of the northern provinces, while also performing well in spots like Portugal’s Alentejo (where it goes by Aragonez) and heartland Spain’s vast elevated plain, the meseta. In Spain specifically, the regions of La Rioja and Valdepeñas historically made Tempranillo their most important variety and it still makes up the majority of their finest blends. Through Spain, the grape name and massal selection plant material changes as the region does: Tinto Fino (Ribera del Duero), Tinto del Toro (Toro), Cencibel (La Mancha), etc.
Factoid: there is a Tempranillo Blanco (White Tempranillo), found uniquely in Spain’s Rioja region. In 1988, a winemaker in the town of Murillo del Río Leza (La Rioja), while sampling grapes in a plot of old vines, found a single greenish-yellow grape cluster in the middle of a vineyard with 100% Tempranillo vines (CIDA, Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario de La Rioja). After taking cuttings to assess what was undoubtedly a new mutation, an experimental vineyard was planted and it was determined that wines obtained from this new variety could be of interest to the wine region at large, so it was authorized in 2007.
California Tempranillo Timeline
Frederic Bioletti brought Tempranillo to California where it received a cool reception, not only due to the encroaching era of Prohibition, but also because of the grape's dislike of hot, dry climates. For most of the 20th century, California grape crush reports listed the grape as Valdepeñas, and it was considered a minor variety, primarily because most of it was planted in warmer regions of the Central Valley, where it produced nondescript “jug” wines and fortified bottlings.
Valdepeñas is listed as such among the varieties cultivated at the U.C. Davis Foothill Experiment Station in Jackson, Amador County, which was where Dr. Goheen “rediscovered” selections in 1963 (long after the station had been abandoned).
Clos du Bois became the first California winery to produce a varietal Tempranillo, made from a few rows planted by then-vineyard manager Steve Smit in 1990. The first bottling in 1992 was non-vintage because there weren't enough grapes to make a single-vintage wine.
Lodi’s Markus Bokisch established Bokisch Ranches in Lodi. He felt that his first planting – Terra Alta Vineyard in Clements Hills, with its rocky, red clay-based Redding soil, rolling hills and Mediterranean climate – was an ideal site for the Tempranillo plant material he sourced directly from Spain. Today, Bokisch’s FPS Clones 12 and 12.1 – referred to as Tinto Fino selections from Ribera del Duero – number among the dozen or so selections of Tempranillo made available to other growers and vintners in the industry.
Led by Oregon’s Earl Jones at Abacela winery, the inflection point for Tempranillo in North America, an associative group is founded to promote and celebrate Tempranillo: Tempranillo Advocates, Producers and Amigos Society, or TAPAS—organized its first annual tasting in 2008.
A total of 376 ha/929 acres had been planted in the Golden State, making it California’s eighteenth most widely planted red wine grape and, because of its relatively high yields, the thirteenth ranking red wine grape that year in terms of tonnage crushed, right after Cabernet Franc.
Grenache plantings remained at 376 ha/929 acres (371.5 ha/918 acres bearing and 4.45 ha/11 acres non-bearing) through year-end 2021, representing 0.20% of total vineyard plantings of all California wine grapes.