Good Morning everyone and welcome back to my wine blog. Today I will be reviewing my favorite red wine varietal which is Tempranillo. In some past reviews and articles I have talked a lot about the varietal and why it is my favorite so I won't rehash all of that again but if you are interested, here (https://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-desert-wine-guy-on-tempranillo-grape.html) is a great article that I wrote on the varietal and here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoBN-slwDHA) is a video I did on the planting of my Tempranillo vines in my Vineyard back when I lived on Las Vegas. I hope you enjoy these links and as always, learned a little something. Let's go ahead now and get some basic information out of the way pertaining to today's wine.
Today I am reviewing the 2012 Mindiarte Tempranillo Reserva. I bought this wine at Trader Joe's quite a while ago and paid $5.99 for it. I am actually not really sure just how long I've had it but it just so happened to be the first red that I pulled out of one of my wine racks and that was the decisive factor in reviewing it today. This wine comes in at 13.5% Alcohol and is made using grapes from vines that range between 25-80 years old. The wine being a "Reserva" is aged in wood for 12 months and continues aging in the bottle for another 24 months. This wine is 100% Tempranillo and the bottle is thankfully, cork sealed. All of this sounds great but of course, doesn't always guarantee a good wine. So, how does this wine rate? Let's find out together right now.
Let's get into this review now by talking just a little about the label. I don't know exactly what it is about the front label that made me want to talk about it but I found it ...."cool". All the label basically shows is the Tempranillo leaf imprinted largely and the wineries name, vintage and the fact that it is a "Reserva". I guess I just simply found it rather inviting looking. The back label was a lot busier and I have included a photo of it here for your appreciation as well. This label includes some Tasting Notes as well as info on the varietal and the aging process among other items. All in all I thought there was a lot of effort and thought put into the labels themselves.
Let me go ahead and open this bottle and discuss what the wine looks like in my glass. A wonderful, deep, inviting, serious red wine is what I see sitting in my glass right now. Coming in as I said at an alcohol percentage of 13.5% there are lots of skinny legs that are slowly running down the sides of my glass. The slow dripping of the legs actually gave the illusion of the wine appearing to have a bit of viscosity to it which of course it doesn't.
On the nose the wine exploded with the perceived sense of a darkness and depth, it exposed notes of oak, leather and smoke. Let me also go ahead and include in as well a nice Note of Hibiscus and you have this Bouquet down. Overall the wine showed off a rather nice Nose and one that will wet your Palette just prior to tasting it.
On the Palette now is a note of White Pepper that immediately makes your Taste Buds stand up and take notice. This White Pepper coated my Tongue lightly and I feel, opened the Palate up to everything else the wine was about to offer up. A peppery note in a red, especially in a Tempranillo to me is awesome and in the Tempranillo varietal is required. This White Pepper also works so well with the acidity that I will discuss right now. Acidity wise, the wine is not over the top but you are guaranteed to taste and enjoy it as it presents itself well. The way the acidity seems to latch onto that White Pepper really hit the Mark and while the White Pepper did make a half hearted attempt at taking control of the wine, you don't need to worry as it was only partially successful. As on the nose so it is on the Palette so let's talk about the smoke Note I get here.
There are wines on the market that overdue the smoky note as the winemaker will use it in order to attempt to add a sense of depth to their wines or cover up a fault(s), not here. There is no fakery here and the smoke note is on the lower end of the tasting scale which is just where I think it needs to be. That note of Leather I got on the Nose nicely swirls around the mouth and just seems to blend in along with the Notes of White Pepper, smoke and acidity that I spoke about. This wine is pretty full bodied and the addition of the Leather certainly makes this wine what I would call "expressive". On top of all this, my Palette is simply being engulfed with a semi darkness as well and this is what I expect from any red wine that I enjoy. Now, I say semi-darkness because there is a component of cherry that injects a bit of a lighter fruit Note onto the Palette as well as a nice juiciness. Now, this cherry Note is more than sufficient to power the wine forward yet without taking anything away from its semi-darkness and depth so please don't be concerned. If you like your Temeranillo with Tannins (as I do) than your set here. Tannins are throughout this wine from start to finish. These are not subtle Tannins but but they are not overwhelming either. To me, these Tannins are what is called "grippy" and while not screaming "taste me" they certainly are saying it pretty loudly. If you weren't already tasting enough let's talk about a fairly serious note of Cedar that simply adds to what the wine is already providing which is overall pretty nice. The Cedar insists on helping the wine support that semi-darkness on the Palette and also in adding some depth to the wine. When you first taste the wine you begin to actually realize that the Cedar note is while not dominating the Palette, certainly one of the Notes instrumental in leading it. Before I go to our closing paragraph I want to add a note of dried cherries that as you can imagine adds a bit of an intensity and a bit of sharpness to the Palate presentation of the wine.
In closing, I have to tell you that this 100% Tempranillo wine is a great find, especially for $5.99. While many winemakers throw a little of this and a little of that into the varietal, Mindiarte made this wine pure Tempranillo. I certainly can understand why a winemaker would feel a need to use this grape to blend with other varietals as it can be a very "in your face" at times but the Tempranillo grape varietal is so very clearly able to stand firmly on it's own as well. Once again Trader Joe's wine section has come through and offered awesome wines from tiny vineyards that are superior to many well known vineyards and for very reasonable prices as well. Yeah, I could have gone to the big warehouse liquor stores and they are great but what do you do when the Wife is food shopping and you see that special bottle for $5.99 knowing that the last one you picked at this store for around that price was great? I'll tell what you do, you buy it, especially if it's a Tempranillo. Well following my own advice, here I am, reviewing a wine from Trader Joe's and NOT the big alcohol warehouse stores. Having just tasted and reviewed this particular wine I remain super happy with my labeling of the Tempranillo varietal as my favorite red wine. To me pepper and/or acidity can work so well together and do wonders in a wine that might be otherwise be overly fruit forward (not this wine), it can at times even save it.
Now, don't get me wrong, this wine comes nowhere near being fruit forward, I was just putting out some reasoning as to why you might want these particular notes in your red aside from enjoying them as I and a lot of other people do. Having said all of this, it is time for my rating of this wine. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I give this wine 90 points which means this is a wine that stands out above the average wine. A wine that while not exceptional, has indeed made its mark on my Palette and my memory.
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