Australia
Back Pocket Wines Castanets 2007
The Granite Belt region in Queensland seems to have had quite a few acres of Tempranillo planted over the past 5 or so years. This wine is made from 5 year old vines in the joven style, with partial carbonic maceration. The vines are D8V12 clone, which is a UC Davis clone and seems to be the main clone in use in Australia at the moment. I'd be interested to hear from anyone using a different clone in Australia, as there is surely more available (there are something like 200+ clones of Tempranillo in Spain).
Deep red in colour with purple to the rim. The wine opened up with a bit of rubber and nuts on the nose, however this blew off in a few minutes to reveal some earthy blackberry and cherry pie. In the mouth it shows a very correct expression of a joven Tempranillo: savoury red cherry and blackberry with dusty tannins. Fairly good balance, the acid pokes out a little at this stage. But all in all a very encouraging example. 86 Pts.
Source: Winery Sample Price: $19 Closure: Screwcap
Discussion
7 comments for “Back Pocket Wines Castanets 2007”
Post a comment
Recent Comments
- ps on Telmo Rodruigez MR 2007
- Dave Worthington on Telmo Rodruigez MR 2007
- ps on Telmo Rodruigez MR 2007
- Dave Worthington on Marques de Velilla Crianza 2004
- Salvadore Dali on Marques de Velilla Crianza 2004
I reckon the Granite Belt has a pretty climate for some of the Spanish varietals…
I agree, but this is where the clone issue comes up.
Native clones in Spain range from cool climate in Rioja, to warm climate in Toro. I’m told that D8v12 is aimed at Northern Californian conditions. I think that a Toro clone would work better in most areas of Australia…
Do you like the same applies to Granache/Grenache?
My knowlegde of Grenache clones is not as good as Tempranillo, but I would suspect that it is similar, but spread over Spain, France and some parts of Italy
Ahh tempranillo clones. I must restrain myself. There are a bunch of problems. Spain has only recently started to get its act together in terms of coordinated vine improvement and out-bound sales of identified clonal stock. Putting aside the heap of really old Spanish and Portuguese vines we have, the newer wave of vine imports for tempranillo is dominated by the D8V12 and D8V13 clones from UC Davis. These clones have ended up in all sorts of places, from Riverland Vine Improvement blocks to Yalumba’s vine nursery and the Chalmers nursery. What has also happened is that a bunch of these clones copped some nasty problems, significant among them being leaf roll. It has taken quite a while for growers to get on top of stock problems, whether they are nursery growers or vineyards. The consensus seems to be that D8V12 does better across regions than D8V13. Yalumba also has a portuguese tinta roriz selection in one of their source blocks. I went with planting D8V12 on own roots.
It is a very big palaver to get new clones into Australia from Spain. I’ve looked into bringing in some Moristel from Somontano, but have put that on hold as too much cost and bother at the moment (without physically going to Spain to sort out sourcing).
No one said it should be easy! Tempranillo does have a range of issues, and you are right the Spanish are only getting around to some of this work now. I’m interested to hear how you went attempting to import some clonal material, I’ll send you an email..
I haven’t been able to find anyone who has experience with more than 3-4 clones of Tempranillo (outside of Spain that is, the better Rioja vineyards are said to have at least 6), so its good hear that someone has looked/is looking at it
And Roda say they have selected 552 strains to look at!