We already love our Tempranillo Blanco, but one of the joys of working with such a rare variety is that it we are still learning every vintage.
One of the most rewarding parts of the last few years has been getting to know Tempranillo Blanco. Topper’s Mountain introduced the variety to Australia and, as far as we know, it’s still the only Tempranillo Blanco grown in the Southern Hemisphere.
Topper’s Mountain Tempranillo Blanco is layered with citrus, white stone fruit, savoury nutty complexity and a beautifully textured palate. Its mineral finish and quiet depth make it a versatile and rewarding food wine.
From a winemaking point of view, it’s been a real learning experience. Even in Rioja, where the variety comes from, it’s rarely bottled on its own, so there isn’t a traditional style to follow. We also had no real benchmark for the best picking window or how the variety would respond to different winemaking approaches in Australia.
Our first vintage was 2023, which turned out to be one of the best white wine vintages we’ve had. Cool, late and beautifully balanced. From the beginning we knew we wanted to build the wine around texture rather than aromatics. We never considered highly clarified juice or tank fermentation. Instead, we took inspiration from the emerging style of unfortified white wines from Jerez, where texture and complexity comes from full solids, wild fermentation, time on lees and careful maturation in oak rather than fruitiness alone.
2023 Tempranillo Blanco, showed we are on the right track
The wine has wonderful generosity and confirmed that Tempranillo Blanco responds beautifully to oak, with gentle spice complementing the stone fruit flavours. It also taught us we could probably pick a touch earlier to hold onto a little more tension and freshness.
Then came 2024. Warm, humid conditions meant we had to harvest earlier than planned because of disease pressure. The wine doesn’t quite have the concentration of 2023, but it surprised us with its lovely tightness, nutty complexity and a beautiful fennel note from Austrian Stockinger hogshead, which we used for the first time. More importantly, it confirmed we were heading in the right direction. We didn’t need to change the philosophy, just refine the details.
By 2025 we found our feet
A balanced growing season let us pick when we wanted, and we shifted towards more oak and fewer ceramic eggs to increase the contact between wine and lees. The result is a wine with more depth and complexity than the previous vintages, while still holding onto the freshness and tension that we think makes the variety so exciting. It shows layers of roasted peach, ginger and gentle savoury notes, with a salty, pithy finish that suits the variety beautifully.
One thing that continues to surprise us is just how slowly Tempranillo Blanco ferments. The spontaneous fermentation lasted 58 days in 2025 and an incredible 92 days in 2026. That’s far longer than any other white variety at Topper’s. Slow fermentations aren’t a goal in themselves, but they do seem to build texture, savoury complexity and beautifully integrated oak.
2026 Tempranillo Blanco
The 2026 is still quietly maturing in barrel, but it’s already showing all the hallmarks of the warm, dry season. Concentration, structure and plenty of character. Looking back over four vintages, it’s satisfying to see the direction becoming clearer each year. We haven’t changed the philosophy, we’ve simply refined it vintage by vintage. That’s one of the joys of working with a variety that still has so much left to teach us, and we think the best Tempranillo Blanco is still ahead of us.
Food pairing
Tempranillo Blanco is a swiss army knife. Whether you need structure to match texture, or something to cut through richness and fat. Think Tempranillo Blanco. It’s got notes of pithy, stone fruit, ripe citrus, herbs, low aromatics, textural weight, and enough backbone to handle food that would steamroll lighter whites.
