Page 77 - Exploration10LLR

Notes:
Spanish Grapes in Edna Valley _________________

Spanishwinelover.com, Bill Ward _________________
_________________
Tempranillo grapes have a long but spotty history in the United States. Albariño has almost no history at all.
_________________
But both these Spanish varieties have made great inroads in recent years, with domestic production rising
sharply in quantity and quality. This year’s San Francisco Chronicle Competition for domestic wines included _________________
83 Tempranillos and more than a dozen Albariños. (I was on the panel judging Tempranillos and was mightily _________________
impressed by the overall quality.)
_________________
Plantings of Tempranillo are on the rise up and down the West Coast and the high-desert regions of Arizona _________________
and Texas, while Albariño acreage is growing at cooler sites in California, Oregon and even Long Island and
Virginia on the East Coast. Many of the wines are sold direct to consumers, but they are starting to spread to _________________
retail stores and restaurant lists. … _________________

Most of the Tempranillo cuttings came from Ribera del Duero rather than Rioja, many of them from “very _________________
old vines” from Alejandro Fernández’s Pesquera and Viña Pedrosa, “very high-end stuff,” Kinne said. _________________

Those cuttings were planted from coast to coast (Virginia to California) with mixed results. “It did OK in _________________
Virginia, but not as good as we thought because it doesn’t like the humidity,” said Kinne, the director of _________________
winemaking at CaliPaso. “It does really well in Paso Robles, and Napa’s a great place for it, but you can’t
change people’s ways,” alluding to the rampant popularity and profits of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, to the _________________
exclusion of other grapes. … _________________

In the late 1990s, the ever-inquisitive Kinne made three trips to Galicia to check out Albariño and liked what ________________
he found. Soon, thousands of cuttings were headed to the States, most of them landing on California’s
Central Coast.

“I thought Edna Valley [near San Luis Obispo] would be a really good spot for Albariño,” Kinne said, “because
it had a lot of ocean breezes and high humidity.”

His theory proved correct, as producers such as Niner, Tangent (whose Albariño is so popular it’s sold
nationwide in kegs), Stephen Ross and LaZarre are making stellar stuff. Much of it comes from the 17-acre
Paragon Vineyard, all derived from Kinne’s cuttings.

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