Also Recommended
Picture
Product Name
Vintage
Price
Varietal
Country
Region
Appellation
Size
Additional Discount
Original Item
2012
$74.64
Tempranillo
Spain
La Rioja
Rioja
750ml
N/A
Better Price, Same Score
2012
$68.95
Tempranillo
Spain
La Rioja
Rioja
750ml
Better Score, Similar Price
2016
$72.95
Tempranillo
Spain
La Rioja
Rioja
750ml
Closest Match
2018
$74.28
Tempranillo
Spain
La Rioja
Rioja
750ml
Best QPR in Price range
2015
$52.45
Tempranillo
Spain
La Rioja
Rioja
750ml
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More Details
Winery
Benjamin Romeo
Vintage: 2012
2012 has, so far been a positive year for wineries around the world. While it may be a little too early to speak of the wines being made in the northern hemisphere, European and North American wineries have already begun reporting that their harvesting season has been generally very good, and are predicting to continue with the kind of successes they saw in 2011. However, 2012 has been something of a late year for France, due to unpredictable weather throughout the summer, and the grapes were ripening considerably later than they did in 2011 (which was, admittedly, an exceptionally early year). French wineries are claiming, though, that this could well turn out to be advantageous, as the slow ripening will allow the resulting wines to express more flavour and features of the terroir they are grown in.
The southern hemisphere has seen ideal climatic conditions in most of the key wine producing countries, and Australia and New Zealand particularly had a superb year, in particular with the Bordeaux varietal grapes that grow there and which love the humidity these countries received plenty of. Also enjoying a fantastic year for weather were wineries across Argentina and Chile, with the Mendoza region claiming that 2012 will be one of their best vintages of the past decade. Similar claims are being made across the Chilean wine regions, where Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon had an especially good year. These two grape varietals also produced characterful wines on the coastal regions of South Africa this year.
Varietal: Tempranillo
For millennia, the Tempranillo grape varietal has been esteemed and revered by winemakers in their native Spain. These grapes are packed full of intense and fascinating flavors, often rewarding wine drinkers with notes of tobacco, leather, plum and herbs alongside their spicy and full bodied character. Their thick, black skins result in their wines being very deep red in color, and often high in tannins. As such, Tempranillo grapes are usually blended with other fine varietals to produce exceptionally balanced and delicious blended wines, such as those found in La Riot and other important wine regions around the world. Despite them being a notoriously tricky varietal to grow, their popularity continues to increase, and winemakers continue to impress the world with this excellent example of a red wine grape.
Region: La Rioja
The wines of La Rioja have been famed throughout the world for many centuries, due to their excellence of flavor and deep, complex character. La Rioja is a green and fertile region of Spain, situated on the north of the country, yet sheltered from the cold and wet Atlantic oceanic influences by the expansive Cantabrian mountain range near the coast. La Rioja's most famous and widely loved grape varietal is the Tempranillo, which is grown in the majority of the vineyards in the region. However, many of the best wines of La Rioja are blended varieties, often featuring the aromatic Garnacha varietal for added perfume. The region also produces several extremely fine white wines, usually made from the Viura varietal grape, which are aged in barrels for extra flavor and aroma.
Country: Spain
Spanish wines are renowned world-wide for carrying all the passion and character of the Spanish culture within them. Any lover of Spanish wine would undoubtedly be able to confirm this notion, as the variety and range of flavors and aromas coming from the high end of Spanish produce is truly impressive, and continues to delight and fascinate both newcomers and the more experienced. Spain benefits massively from an ideal climate for wine production and vine cultivation, with its long, scorching hot summers and far reaching oceanic breezes working perfectly with the native and imported grape varietals, which thrive on the mineral rich soils that cover much of the country. With centuries of knowledge, and generations of expertise under their belts, Spanish wineries continue to focus on raising the quality of their nation's wines, helped along the way by relatively new laws and regulations regarding regional excellence and representativeness.