Tour Guide, Stellenbosch, South Africa
| 3 mins read
Cape town, fondly called the Mother City by its inhabitants is a place of many wonders, which never seize to amaze me. Just when I thought that I could not be filled with any more love or surprises from this city, out pops the Tempranillo chapter.
Beginning of wine culture
Wine, was first brought to the Cape in 1652, by its first governor, Jan Van Riebeek. With ships and sailors spending months on end at sea, planting vines at the company gardens was meant for more than just making merry. It was more crucial as a drink to cure scurvy, than what we drink it for now. The governor brought with him, vines from the German Rheingau wine area. An year later, there were vines coming in from Bohemia, France, Germany, and Spain. Of course, the wine then and the wine we drink now was very different, more like rancid vinegar if you ask me.
Sadly, the vines did not adjust to the climate in the Cape (or current City Bowl), and Jan Van Riebeek had to move the vines from the company gardens to Constantia, and further to regions like Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and Paarl.
Out of the above 3 regions, Paarl has the warmer climate and granitic soils that are favorable to the Tempranillo grapes variety, a cultivar with a high pH and low fixed acid content.
Tempranillo grapes
Tempranillo grapes are known to ripen early, thus the derivation of the name from the Spanish word 'Temprano' - meaning Early. It is a thick-skinned grape that provides lots of color and tannin, and easy to work with in the cellar. This is also a grape that adapts well to climate change, which is very important when it comes to the drought restricted areas of the Cape; contracting when there is a drought and swelling when there is too much humidity.
The color of a Tempranillo wine is thick and ruby-like, with aromas and flavors that can include berries, plum, tobacco, vanilla, leather, and herb.But, even with this flavor profile it is less frequently bottled as a single varietal, even though it can sometimes take up as much as 90% of a blend.
Nevertheless, few vineyards in Paarl are now bringing out bottles of this single varietal, and surprising the pallet of many a snob.
The 2014 Bloemcool 'Tinto Fino'
While visiting the "Fairview Wine and Cheese Vineyard" in Paarl, I recently discovered a bottle of the 2014 Bloemcool 'Tinto Fino', a single varietal Tempranillo wine, made by wine maker- Charles Back. Delivering on every note that its supposed to with a unique cauliflower seed label, only 470 of these bottles were produced.
From its first bottled wine in 1974 to winning awards in 2017- this vineyard has never stopped to amaze me; Growing from strength to strength and now coming out with a wine that blows your mind as you sit and take in your environment inside the Master Tasting room.
The 2014 Bloemcool “Tinto Fino” is one wine that every traveler arriving in the Cape should experience. It is an expression of Cape history; from when the first governor arrived with the intention to create a one-stop-shop for the ships traveling along the spice route, having brought with him the Spanish grapes to cure Scurvy to sitting in a cool tasting room with views of the cellar and peacocks.
Tempranillo- a Noble Grape, comes full circle to the Mother City.