Wine of the Week: Finca El Encinal Tempranillo

Wine: Finca El Encinal Tempranillo

Grape: Tempranillo

Region: Ribera del Duero, northern Spain

Vintage: 2009

Price: $9.99

Availability: Lee’s Discount Liquor

In the glass: Finca El Encinal wine is a deep garnet-red color with an opaque core going out into a fine light garnet-red to glass-clear meniscus, also commonly called rim definition, with medium-high viscosity.

On the nose: It is brimming with vanilla-bean soaked cherries, even Cherry Garcia ice cream, then cooked plums, berry cobbler, red flowers and hints of earthy minerals and garrigue.

On the palate: There is clear cherry juice, pomegranate crush and plum sauce on this medium-bodied wine. Touches of loganberries, elder fruit and sloe are also present with soft nicely structured tannins at play with the predominant red fruit and moderate acidity. The midpalate is quite light and pleasant with just a kick of vanilla from the American oak, and the finish is medium plus lingering for about 15 seconds.

Odds and ends: Tempranillo, or either tinto fino or tinta del pais as it is sometimes called in various parts of Spain, is the most widely planted red wine grape variety in that country. Not only is it indigenous, but it is identical to the grape variety grown in neighboring Portugal called tinta roriz and also in Tuscany under the name malvasia nera. The wines made from Tempranillo range from very rustic and “old-fashioned,” aged in old wooden vats, all the way up to top-notch sophisticated and modern wines, aged in American oak barrels with superb characteristics. Finca El Encinal falls somewhere in between given its rusticity and the aging in American oak. It comes from one of the top appellations in Spain called Ribera del Duero, which happens to be home to Spain’s two most famous wines: the legendary Vega Sicilia and Pingus. We can say this wine is certainly in impressive company with its “neighbors.” Here at the end of summer, this wine will match beautifully with a nice piece of grilled mahi-mahi or swordfish; even tuna. It is a wine that is close to reaching maturity, as it is 5 years old, but drink it now through 2017.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.