Oregon Tempranillo Celebration

January 24, 2018

The Oregon Tempranillo Alliance held its annual Celebration and Grand Tasting Sunday, January 21 in Portland. Twenty-seven wineries from across Oregon, including Holloran Vineyard Wines, got together to pour a variety of Tempranillos. Bill brought two vintages to share—a 2015 Holloran Tempranillo Eola-Amity Hills and a 2014 Holloran Tempranillo La Chenaie.

Leading up to the event, KGW TV’s “Portland Today” show (see video) had a mini tasting with Sommelier Jade Helm. (Read Jade’s excellent Tasting Pour blog post about Tempranillo wines.) The Holloran Willamette Valley Tempranillo seemed to be a panel favorite among the four wines sampled.

There are currently two Tempranillos available on the website to purchase, both from Eola-Amity Hills. The 2014 vintage is a result of one of the hottest summers on record for most of the Willamette Valley—which can be a surprisingly good thing for tempranillo grapes. The awesome 2012 vintage represents selections of our best barrels from the La Chenaie Vineyard.

For wine making nerds, the video below shows the “punch down” of Tempranillo grapes from the 2017 harvest. This process pushes and breaks up the cap (skins, seeds, stems, pulp) back into the extracted juice to improve the flavor and color of the wine. If you are looking for a good upper arm and shoulder workout, you may want to try this.

Thanks to assistant winemaker Suzy Harryman for providing the video.

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