The Desert Wine Guy - 2005 Iron Gate Tempranillo - Paso Robles

                                                        

   Today's wine came from a short day trip my daughter and I took to Cedar City Utah. Being that most people haven't discovered that wine grapes can be grown in the Desert yet, there aren't too many wineries around the Las Vegas area. In fact Iron Gate Winery (http://igwinery.com/) is the only Winery in Southern Utah. Going to Cedar City is a pleasant trip though and my "Travel Partner" and I hopped in the car and went straight up Highway 15 North to check out the Iron Gate Winery.  Groundbreaking for the Iron Gate Winery itself was in January of 2012 when the new owner added a very small Production area on to what was already an existing "Historical" cottage. The place is very small and set in a beautiful area. While it is small it does get the job done as you will soon see.

2005 Tempranillo - Paso Robles

    When you arrive at the Winery you might be a little surprised, I have to tell you that I was. If you are expecting to walk through or at least see an actual Vineyard or two you will be surprised to discover there are none,  as I said I know I was. It turns out that none of the wines made at the Winery actually come from grapes grown on property (Estate Wine). The grapes are sourced from California, Washington State & Oregon. The only grapevine we saw was a small wild vine growing to the left of the building and you really had to look hard to find it. It was growing almost like a weed would. The Winery is also actually in a residential neighborhood so when you follow your G.P.S don't think it's broken and a repair is needed you actually are at your destination. Like I'm sure many people do you will think that the country house up front is the Winery, it is not, it is actually a Bed & Breakfast that is on the same property (which according to Trip Advisor is supposed to be fantastic by the way). The actual Winery is the building in the back. Drive your car on the path to the left of the Bed & Breakfast and head to the back building. My Daughter and I went in the middle of July and the weather was beautiful and the front of the property is decorated by super nice plants that unlike Vegas actually grow beautiful flowers. We also enjoyed the Apple Tree that is on the property and although the apples are small they were delicious. The Winery itself produces a regular as well as an Off-Dry Riesling, A Sauvignon Blanc, a regular as well as a Reserve Chardonnay, A Roussane, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a tempest, a Syrah, a Mourvedre, a Late Harvest Zinfandel as well as our review wine, a Tempranillo. This I must admit is a lot of different varietals and shows a great degree of confidence and (one would presume ) talent by the Wine Maker. So how does our Tempranillo (which is my favorite wine by the way) showcase the varietal? Let us find out right now.
   The first item of business is to inform you that this wine must be decanted. To drink this wine before Decanting it for at least 2 hours of letting it open up is a disservice to this wine and to the varietal itself. I made the mistake of drinking the wine just shortly after it was opened and I am glad I drink slowly. I am going to do something that I have never read of a reviewer doing before. I am going to first include in this article my thoughts on the wine BEFORE the wine had a chance to "open up" and develop. Normally the review you read here is based upon the wine having fully opened enough to express itself. There are times I will start the wine and put some notes down on paper. Somewhere along the way I will enjoy noticing the wine evolve into what it was meant to be. Way back (before The Desert Wine Guy came to be) I never believed that a wine could "open Up". I just thought that was wine snobbery talk....that is until I experienced it for myself first hand. This review should be taken as a little lesson for those of you who are just discovering the world of wine. There are beliefs or thoughts or myths about wine that have permeated into the wine world that actually have no basis in reality. Let's get onto the review now but remember that the first chapter notes were written down BEFORE the wine had a chance to develop. With time things change let's see if that applies to this wine.
   This Tempranillo poured a medium Purplish in my glass with a Bouquet of Oak, Cassis and Black Current. As for putting all these flavors together in way so as not to overpower one over the other that was done nicely but the flavors in combination were weak to say the least. You could tell that the wine wanted to express itself but that simply wasn't happening. The problem was there was no depth to the wine. A Tempranillo is supposed to be a deep, Peppery, rich wine, unfortunately at the time of opening and shortly after that this wine had neither of these characteristics in enough force to matter. On the Palette the wine did have the taste of Black Current and Cassis but as already said not in enough amounts to make a difference. There were very slight Tannins noticed but overall it ended up slightly on the watery side which really helped to put a damper on the Tempranillo varietal. This is NOT what this varietal is supposed to be. At this point in the review if the wine stayed where it was and (I had already learned that a wine most times will "open up") I would have assumed the wine was bad and the review was going to reflect just that and as such I would NOT have recommended it. Thankfully wine does develop, Open Up most of the time and this particular wine was no exception. At the time of opening the wine I would have rated it an 85 on The Desert Wine Guys point scale. Let's see what development can do for a wine.
   Now lets get to what is my final review, the review meant for readers which is what you guys normally would see when reading  this blog. This review was done around 2 hours into the bottle being opened and this is the minimum amount of time I would recommend you wait before drinking it. The wine is definitely not for the faint of heart. Strong Cassis and Current are now joined by a beautiful Tobacco/Peppery flavor. The Oak in the wine stands out as well.  The Pepper in the wine along with the Tobacco  shows what a medium in body Tempranillo can taste like when done correctly. The Tannins in the wine also do increase ever so slight and end up being strong (although not to strong) enough and to the point where they assist in the opening and developing of the wine into something worthwhile to drink.  The wine still remains a medium in color Purple in the glass but adds more red to itself. While I would not say this wine is a classic example of a Tempranillo by any means, overall I would say that this is a decent example of how the Tempranillo varietal can show off it's characteristics if given half a chance. By the way, don't be alarmed when you see something clinging to the inside wall of the bottle, this wine is also unfiltered as I learned when I noticed that there appeared to be stains inside the bottle. I E-Mailed and sent pictures (see below) to Doug who is the wine maker and he was nice enough to respond and inform me that what I was seeing was actually some grape skin and that it was due to the wine not being filtered. I actually think that was a nice touch to the wine. In the end this wine ends up being given a Desert Wine Guy rating of a 90 which is a big difference from the undeveloped  raw rating of an 85.

Unfiltered Tempranillo

   Let's wind things up here with a summary of the wine as well as an unexpected lesson (which was an after thought once I started writing this article) that I hope those new to wine will take and learn from. First the summary. Although as I said, while this is not the perfect example of the Tempranillo varietal it IS a good one. The characteristics of this wine, although not as strong as I prefer are pretty good and the wine is well done enough for me to recommend it. The price of $23 is slightly high but then again that is the price the Winery is selling it for, usually a retail store, especially a big box store will usually have a lower price. If you like a medium depth red with Tobacco and spice then you will appreciate this wine.
   Now for the lesson I promised. Those of you just starting off should be willing to experiment, experience, ask questions, watch, listen and learn, respect nature and the soil and you will open up yourself to a whole new world ,the world of wine. It is an exciting world (in my opinion), I think to begin learning about the wine itself, then move onto learning about the vines themselves, then design your very own Vineyard. When you finally get the courage to put your plan into action do your part in the construction of that Vineyard. Then finally, plant and watch your grapevines grow. It is cool to watch your first bunch of grapes for the new growing year develop. It is great to learn about the characteristics of the grapes you are growing also. Then Finally after all this has sunk in.....make your first bottle of wine. I will let you know how that last part feels as soon as I experience it myself. In the meantime bring a small bag for the Apples and visit the Winery. While you are there say hello to Tony (who was awesome) if he is there and tell him The Desert Wine Guy said hi. Tony was behind the counter when my daughter and I visited and I was nice enough to participate in a video about the winery. You can see that video here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9brGmzOoOJU).

                                              

Doug - The Winemaker

                                                                                                                 The Desert Wine Guy


 www.desertwineguy.blogspot.com/

www.facebook.com/DesertWineGuy?fref=nf

https://twitter.com/DesertWineGuyLV

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ/videos