When it comes to Rosé wine the variety variation can be a real treat. Because almost no Rosé wine is influenced with oak. They are usually stainless steel or concrete fermented. Often to the peak of dry or just before it reaches absolute peak dryness and then bottled quickly and sold. Some Rosé’s can even be aged but don’t age them too long. It usually doesn’t work out.

Here in El Dorado County you can find great Rosé from almost all the wineries that exist. They usually do at least one white and one Rosé. If you want to go really deep on Rosé, you need to focus on France, France exports a lot of Rosé, it was probably invented in Provence. The king region for Rosé today is Provence. This region is in the very south east of France and here you can find walls and walls of high acid, fruit centric, and complex Rosé. They use the similar techniques and it really comes down to the grape. The techniques often use no oak, so you will get the grape’s expression more fully. The wine is aged in concrete, or here in the USA in stainless steel with temperature control. Rarely is there residual sugar, but sometimes just a tad. A slight amount of sugar never hurts really, but to be honest most of these wines on the hydrometer will be 0 or -1 (perfectly dry).

The Rosé’s I like from around here are using a number of different varieties.

Dolcetto (thanks Lava Cap)
Zinfandel (yes better than the classic White Zinfandel which is often too sugary)
Syrah
Barbera
Grenache
Pinot Noir

Grenache is a great varietal for Rosé, and most of Provence is using Grenache, except Bandol where Mourvèdre is always 50% of the blend there, so the Rose’ in Bandol will be Mourvèdre centric. And many say the Rose’s from Bandol are more complex and really special. The AOC rule in Bandol is Mourvèdre must be 50% of any rouge wine, and at least 20% of any Rosé. And most wines are blended by tradition. We are heading there in 2027 to find out more about the AOC’s of Provence.

Here are some grape varieties used traditionally for Rosé across Europe that you won’t find a Rosé from in El Dorado County or across the Sierra Foothills, but if you find one send me a note here on my website.

Mourvèdre (think Bandol)
Lagrein
Cabernet Franc
Aglianico
Nebbiolo
Sangiovese
Gamay Noir
Valdiguié
Côt (Malbec)
Grolleau

I suggest you try some nice dry (yes even complex) Rosé from the south of France as a starter anyway, or go high end and then go for a Tavel France Rosé. Much of it does come from the South of France but certainly all of France is notable. The Rhone Valley is famous for it as well and outside of Provence, Tavel is often on the finest wine lists (across France for sure). But if you want to look for something specific at your favorite wine store read this WE look into French Rosé. This excellent post goes far beyond just Provence or the southern Rhône. You have to remember my orientation and biases, they are towards Rhône varieties and southern France and Alsace. Other places that have some heritage and specialty in higher end Rosé, are

Spain
Italy
Austria
South Africa
Greece
Sicily

To name a few, but for many of these places you will have to go there to really immerse yourself.

Much of the Rosé I find in El Dorado County is just that. It barely exists.

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One winery that has significant love towards both Portuguese and Spanish varieties is St Amant. This winery is worth a visit as they have scored a plethora of 90+ scores from Wine Enthusiast over the years and across the collection. With their Tempranillo you’ll be drinking Amador County (technically Foothill grapes) in the process. Their Spencer vineyard is their largest vineyard and that is located just on the western edge of Amador County. Another winery out of Lodi that sponsors a Tempranillo tour in November, is Bokisch Winery, and they helped sponsor the Lodi Spanish wine tour, that hit 8 wineries just for their Tempranillo. If you are looking for a list to do your own tour use the page I just provided.

Within Amador County I have to mention a relative newcomer winery that has lots of potential. Casino Mine Ranch has a good amount of (Tempranillo) grapes planted in Amador more along Shenandoah Road, which is the heart of Amador County wine country. I can’t say Tempranillo is their flagship grape, this winery takes a lot of pride in diversity, but the Marcel flagship blend uses Tempranillo to its perfection. This wine is both very bold and highly complex in its characteristics so you get what most people are looking for in this wine. Marcel is a bold wine, and a very complex wine. I see that Casino Mine Ranch also doesn’t release the Marcel till its ready, a few years on, and even then you can tell it needs some more time (at least 2 more years) to develop into something tremendous and perhaps a bit softer.

Tempranillo varietals in the Foothills (Amador/Lodi) regions is often big, high in tannins and simply “strong, bold wine”. If you prefer a more medium bodied wine I advise that you be patient and look around more, to find that balance that this variety can provide. It is both exceptional and truly noble in a way only a many generation Spanish wine-making family can truly understand. To take a closer look with great graphics about Tempranillo, step into the world of Wine Folly and their comprehensive, yet easy to consume guide on Tempranillo. My takeaway is that this grape and wine provide medium body and color, and do best when the wine is crafted in the middle of that elegant to bold scale, where the fruit can really show its many faces in the glass.

So glad that Tempranillo has begun to shine out from under the excellent and dominant Old Vine Zinfandel shadow of the southern parts of my (favorite Foothills) region.

You’ll need to figure out what kind of (Tempranillo) you really like.

Cheers!

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Here is a map of the region to give it more clarity.

The wines I drank on my tasting at this roadshow were mostly from DO Rueda, DO Ribera del Duero and one winery each from DO Tierra de Leon and DO Toro. I definitely did not get anywhere close to full exposure across this vast region of course. I also noticed that many of the wineries are family run businesses, and often quite large ones. Some wineries just produce maybe 10,000 to 20,000 cases which is not a lot for an export driven winery, and one producer Farina produces over 80,000 cases of wine, quite a lot, and this seemed to be the biggest winery at the event.

Much of the wine served was either Malvasia (for the dominant white varietal shown across the room), and in the reds, it was very much a show of beautifully complex Tempranillo. So good were these Tempranillo’s, they would rival the best Cabernet’s that California provides. So much complexity and grandeur in these wines. Spain’s flagship grape is the Tempranillo grape, about 80-90% of the world’s Tempranillo is grown in Spain.

So what wines really impressed us?

Our favorite for both Malvasia (old vines) and also old vine Tempranillo was from Dominio Del Bienamado. Both their old vine Coray (Tempranillo) and their MarMaria (Malvasia) were to die for. Tons of expressive nose, deep nuttiness and stone fruit on the Malvasia that had a lingering finish that was beyond greatness. The Coray drank as well as any complex Cabernet from Napa. These wines were simply stunning.

Other top mentions were:
Castillo Del Buen Amor (the Castle of Great Love) – which brought a delicious Pinot Noir that was so special it was also loved by the wine importer that is importing this winery fairly soon (to the USA). The Pinot was darker and richer than any Oregon Pinot and had beautifully light pepper spice notes to it, that excited the palate and elevated the finish. It was stunning. You can stay at this castle if you so choose and I am sure you will get access to these 4 varietals that they make at this small adjacent winery.

Protos – had some very nice mid priced Tempranillo’s. This winery is importing into the United States.

Bodegas Y Vinedos Vega De Yuso – Excellent Tempranillo. You get a real taste for how Tempranillo responds to oak with this winery and their 3 incarnations of TresMatas. You get the lighter, balanced, younger feeling TresMatas, out towards the tertiary rich, and oak infused deep Tempranillo that is closer to the Gran Reserva style but not a bombshell either. Delicious ladder of Tempranillo from one terroir. From a bit fruity yet oak infused, to much more layered. I like a bit fruitier simpler Tempranillo, however most of the wineries at this show were showing off their classic big stuff. at 14.5 to 15.5% in ABV and generally big wines. This winery gave us the spectrum all within one Pago. Very nice.

Pago De La Oliva – also very elegant, complex Tempranillo was the offering to the roadshow guests, and they were all excellent, from slightly fruity, to real dinner lover specials, ready to take on any (robust) foods. There was one wine here that was a bit tight and high tannin. It needed more time.

So what is a Pago? A pago in spanish wine terminology is analogous to Cru in French wine. It is one parcel, vineyard, sub-region of an AVA or region. You often see it as part of the name of some of the fine small estate vineyards/wineries, explaining to you that you are getting some wine from a special place or “Pago”.

This small event was excellent, but drinking 50-100 wines is too hard. So I could not focus on all of these fine examples of Spanish Castilla wineries. Many of the wines were in the 89-96 point class in my book. Very impressive, some like the Dominio mentioned above were just blockbuster. Sadly, not enough importers exist for this group, and they were here in the US looking for that support to sell in bulk some of their fine wines into the US west coast market. Some of these wineries are on the east coast already but penetrating the west coast was the goal here. So much Spanish wine is worth your dollar, and of course Spanish wines are also often a bargain at their level of sophistication and top shelf taste and finish. Remember a classic finish is always the hardest thing for a wine to provide so look for that part of the experience.

Enjoy a Spanish wine tonight if you can and see how it delivers from nose, to palate to finish.

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