Skip to main content

Spicewood Vineyards Texas High Plains Tempranillo 2012

I purchased this bottle of Spicewood Vineyards Tempranillo 2012 sourced from the Texas High Plains at the winery last summer during a trip to Austin. It was one of my favorites that I tasted that day so I bought a few bottles to take home. It is 92% Tempranillo and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon and it was aged in 30% new American Oak and 70% neutral oak barrels for 12 months.

 My daughter was away studying abroad in Spain for most of the spring and had returned with some saffron for me and a request for me to make paella. After a hectic May, I finally got around to it last Wednesday night. I opted to open this Texas Tempranillo to see how it was holding up and let her compare some of Texas' finest with what she had been drinking in Spain, the home of Tempranillo wines. 

 I am pleased to report that it was even better than I remembered. The Spicewood Vineyards Texas High Plains Tempranillo 2012 had pronounced aromas of ripe raspberry and blackberry with baking spice, it was dry with moderate tannins and acidity with a blackberry cobbler flavor and a long finish. It was very drinkable based on the speed that we went through this bottle and it is a recommended wine. It paired well with the paella which contained gulf shrimp, chicken and chorizo sausage.

 Spicewood Vineyards is a family owned business located in the Texas Hill Country just a short drive from Austin. If you are visiting the area, it is well worth the ride to check out the vineyards, the winery and taste some award-winning Texas wines. They are open to the public Wednesday through Sunday.

 Click here to read more about my visit to Spicewood Vineyards.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for reading Wine Life - Houston.

Popular posts from this blog

Winemaker, Andrés Sánchez of Alcance

I was invited to a media and trade tasting lunch at Backstreet Cafe with Andrés Sánchez, the winemaker for Alcance, a Jackson Family winery. As guests arrived, we were greeted with a glass of lightly chilled Alcance Chardonnay 2016, a perfect start for a hot summer day in Houston. This rich and elegant Chardonnay is grown on granitic soils in a coastal mountain vineyard in the Valle de Itata. Despite my multiple wine classes, this was a growing area with which I was not familiar. This vineyard is located between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean about 12 miles from the coast which as Sánchez pointed out adds a nice sea influence to the wine. The Chardonnay was pleasantly fresh with light citrus notes and a touch of butterscotch with a distinct saline mineralty throughout the slightly creamy finish.  A mixed appetizer platter with Gulf Coast Beignets, duck spring rolss, asparagus and zuchini flatbread, and lump crab cakes on red pepper beurre blanc were br...
Post a Comment
Read more

Darioush Wine Tasting at Pappas Grill

I went to a  Darioush wine tasting last Friday. What a delight! I found every bottle we tasted to be exceptional. Darioush is well-known for their Bordeaux styled wines so I was already familiar with both the Darioush "Signature" and the Estate Caravan Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. They are both highly rated and consistently good. The Caravan is the lower priced of the two and is something that I keep in stock at home. The wines in the line up for the evening were all from Napa Valley and included: 2008 Signature Viognier, 2005 Signature Chardonnay, 2005 Signature Merlot, 2007 Signature Shiraz, 2007 Estate Caravan Cabernet Sauvignon, and both the 2006 & 2007 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2007 was opened by mistake which was a bonus to all who were present. The Viognier varietal has been hit and miss for me at tastings in the past but this offering was an absolute stand out. It was very fragrant with floral notes of jasmine and or...
Post a Comment
Read more

"The Zen of Zin" Tasting at Fleming's in River Oaks

On Friday evening, my husband and I attended the Zinfandel wine tasting at Fleming's in River Oaks. My husband gets totally pumped up for any and all things Zinfandel but what I found really intriguing in the line up of wines were the aged offerings. Brent Sloan, managing partner at Houston's premier wine storage facility Nos Caves Vin, had provided Fleming's with four 18 year old bottlings and one 17 year old bottling from his collection of some of his favorites. I found this interesting because 1. I don't believe that I have ever had an 18 year old Zinfandel before this evening and 2. From various wine classes, I had always heard that at best Zinfandel had very limited aging ability. So, I was definitely excited to give these wines a taste. There were also an additional five younger Zinfandel wines that are some of Fleming's best sellers. The entire tasting line up for the evening included: 2009 Orin Swift Saldo - California 2007 Schulz "Lampyridae...
5 comments
Read more