This is the perfect wine for a California Cabernet drinker who wants to try something new.

The grapes for this wine come from a 72-acre vineyard called "Finca Los Juncares," which was planted in 1957. Only after very careful vineyard selections, the best vines of Tempranillo grapes are hand-harvested in small boxes to prevent bruising. Malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel, and the wine is aged in new French oak barrels for 14 months and then bottled unfiltered.

This single vineyard-designated wine has plenty of red cherries, blueberries, mulberries and red raisins, depicting grapes pushed to full ripeness without going beyond the boundary into excessive overripeness. The oak character is relatively elegant with toasty, coffee hints only, and the balanced wine shows some lingering length as well.

Winemaker's Notes: 

Very dark purple with lots of black hues. Big sweet nose (some may call it candified) of dark plums, black cherries, sweet smoky oak, tobacco, and funky tree bark. Forward gush of dark fruit that also has some helpful tangy red currants along with tobacco, smoke, and earth. Medium-low acid, soft tannins.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

92 points

The 2009 Tempranillo is produced from estate-grown fruit aged for 6 months in French oak. Cedar, spices, incense, violets, and blackberry aromas and flavors lead to a nicely proportioned, lengthy red that is similar in personality to its organic sibling but with slightly greater volume and length. This excellent value will drink nicely for another 3-4 years.