Tempranillo belongs among the few original varieties of Topper’s Mountain vineyard. That means it wasn’t grafted over some less successful trials as is the case with Nebbiolo (grafted over Riesling) or Manseng (grafted over Chardonnay). It has been the largest single varietal block from the very beginning and still occupies 1.58ha – 16% of our vineyard. Yet, we haven’t made single varietal Tempranillo bottling at Topper’s since 2013.

Why? Our single varietal bottling showed exactly what one of the most famous wine writers Oz Clark says about Tempranillo: …its attractions are its lush texture and it supple exuberant fruit, all blackberries and black cherries, mulberries and raspberries… simply, it offers lots of warmth and love almost snuggling your tongue but sometimes too much love could be hard to handle so we thought the lushness would benefit in having a counterpart in the form of more structural, tannic varieties.

We ran many trials.
Bricolage Rouge 2014 has 60% of Tempranillo plus Tempranillo, Nebbiolo, Tannat and Shiraz;
Touriga & Tintas 2016 has around 40% of Tempranillo (alongside Touriga Nacional and Tinta Cão) as well as Touriga & Tintas Kvevri 2020.
Red Submarine 2020 was a blend of early picked Tempranillo (60%) and Tannat.
All of those wines showed that naturally tannic animals like Tannat and Touriga Nacional can provide much needed back bone to the lush texture of Tempranillo. We even made Port style fortified wine from Tempranillo where the added brandy is beautifully wrapped in the Tempranillo soft blanket.

Great news is that you can now taste the Topper’s Tempranillo story in our limited customised 6pack including some museum releases allocated for our loyal customers!

Tempranillo Story 6pack offer:

1x Topper’s Mountain Tempranillo 2011
1x Topper’s Mountain Tempranillo 2012 (90pts The Real Review)
1x Topper’s Mountain Tempranillo 2013
1x Topper’s Bricolage Rouge 2014 (91pts The Real Review)
1x Topper’s Mountain Touriga & Tintas 2016 (95pts The Real Review)
1x Topper’s Mountain Touriga & Tintas KVEVRI 2020 (91pts The Winefront)

Limited Tempranillo Story 6pack is offered for $200 (if wines ordered separately $213)
Terroir Club Members $170
My Vine Club members $190 
Terroir Club & My Vine Club members $160

You can order direstly from our on-line shop HERE.

In case of any questions please contact us HERE.

top image courtesy @vinapp