Last year on a visit to Yealands Estate in Marlborough, Glenys and I had a great time tasting and chatting with Brydie Morrison their Cellar Door Manager and tasted a number of their fabulous wines. We went home with quite a few bottles including this bottle of Pete’s Shed 2009 Tempranillo.
I’m always eager to try something new and having had a few Tempranillos from Spain and NZ producers such as Trinity Hill, I was interested in trying this one made with Yealand’s award winning, environmentally sustainable, grape growing and wine making practices.
Pete's Shed Tempranillo 2009
For those of you that haven’t heard of this variety, Tempranillo is a variety of black grape widely grown to make full-bodied red wines in its native Spain. It is the main grape used in Rioja, and is often referred to as Spain’s “noble grape.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempranillo)
The 2009 Tempranillo from the Pete’s Shed – Small Parcels series of wines is made from grapes carefully selected from the Guinea Pig block in the Awatere Valley. It is bright / light berry-red in the glass with a bit of spice and strawberries / raspberries in the nose. Really pleasant red fruit flavours, integrated with some nice tannins and oak characters on the palate with a smooth finish – a light but elegant easy-drinking red which would go really well with say, some tapas or even a pizza. We rated this 17/20 or 85/100 (Silver)
To find out more about Yealands and Pete’s Shed visit http://www.yealands.com/ and if you have broad band do checkout their high speed interactive website – it’s great.