Albae Tempranillo 2015

The final red wine of the Bodega Albae wine tasting at TomeVinos Barrio Salamanca. This is 100% Tempranillo aged in French oak barrels for 6 months.

It was the wine I was least interested in because Tempranillo wines are a dime a dozen here in Spain. I was keener to try the wines made from, what I considered to be, ‘foreign grapes’, but I did think the Tempranillo would serve as a base wine from which to compare.

Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be one of my favourites of the evening. So much so I bought a bottle to take home 😁😁. I guess there’s a reason they cultivate so much Tempranillo here in Spain: it clearly works.

It is a purple colour of medium intensity with a good scent of fruit of the forest with some vegetal/wood hints. In flavour it tastes full on fruity with hints of wood. Dry, light bodied, lower tannins and acidity, some finish.

Let’s be honest this is not the most complex wine of the evening, so why was it one of my favourites? Because it is a classic young, fun, fruity red that Spain does so well and a great example of this.

This wine was like a home coming. I spent the evening travelling the world of wine to end it with something so familiar and comforting. The moment I smelt it I thought ‘yes! This smells right’. That’s not to say the other wines smelt wrong, they just didn’t smell of home. It was a powerful sensation and I was surprised at just how much it grabbed me.