Tempranillo bunch from the iconic El Andañal vineyard, part of the Ontañón Familia in Quel.
I
VARIETY
Tempranillo
The quintessential Rioja variety:
pure finesse, pure silk
Tempranillo stands as the quintessential Rioja variety: the very foundation of its great red wines and one of the world’s most esteemed grapes. It commands approximately 75% of the region’s vineyard area.
THE GENETIC ORIGIN OF THE VARIETY
Renowned enologist José Hidalgo notes that, according to recent DNA analyses carried out by the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences (ICVV) and the Madrid Institute for Rural, Agricultural, and Food Research and Development (IMIDRA), Tempranillo has been confirmed as the progeny of a cross between the white grape Albillo Mayor (known locally as Turruntés), indigenous to Castilla y León and documented as early as 1513 by Alonso de Herrera, and the red grape Benedicto from Aragón, recorded by Nicolás García de los Salmones in 1914 and currently facing near-extinction.
Two historical
notes
The earliest documented reference to Tempranillo dates back to Gabriel Alonso de Herrera’s Tratado de Agricultura General (1513), where it is described under the name Aragonés as follows: “Dark-skinned grape. It bears large, compact clusters with thick-skinned berries; the vines are highly productive. It yields a deeply colored wine of limited longevity, which improves greatly when blended with white grapes.”
The oldest known record of Tempranillo cultivation in Rioja appears in José Antonio Valcárcel’s Agricultura General (1791). In this work, the variety is mentioned alongside other Rioja grapes such as Garnacha, Mazuela, and Barbés (likely the modern Graciano). Valcárcel describes it thus: “It is almost of the same quality as Barbés, except that its skin is more resistant, its shoots are vigorous and tend to climb in search of height; it is harvested fifteen days before Garnacha and Mazuelo, and produces a wine of considerable strength.”
Agricultura General, from José Antonio Valcárcel (1791) and Tratado de Agricultura General, from Alonso de Herrera (1513).
Viña La Pasada, cradle of Ontañón's Tempranillo * Viña La Pasada, cradle of Ontañón's Tempranillo *
Una imagen de la viña La Pasada, cuna del tempranillo de Ontañón.
Ontañón Familia’s Tempranillo from the Sierra de Yerga
José Peñín in the Ontañón vineyards, Sierra de Yerga, alongside Leticia Pérez Cuevas.
As the renowned wine journalist José Peñín eloquently explains, Tempranillo—an early-ripening variety—thrives with effortless grace in continental zones blessed with annual rainfall around 400 liters. Here, it revels in marked diurnal temperature swings: August nights rarely exceeding 16°C, days seldom surpassing 33°C, yet always bathed in reliable, generous sunshine.
These are precisely the conditions found in the elevated landscapes of Quel, in Rioja Oriental, where virtually all of Ontañón Familia’s vineyards are nestled.
In Quel, summers are brief, hot, dry, and predominantly clear-skied, while winters arrive cold and partly clouded. Across the year, temperatures typically range from 2°C to 30°C, seldom dipping below -3°C or climbing above 35°C. Most of the year’s rainfall concentrates in the 31 days centered around November 4th, yielding an average annual total of 420 liters.
The average age of Ontañón Familia’s Tempranillo vines stands at 30 years—planted in the early 1990s on high-altitude sites. These vines root in poor, sandy-loam soils (16.9% silt, 73.1% sand, 10% clay), across a rich mosaic of exposures, terraces, and training systems that coax out extraordinary expression and finesse.
Otras variedades
Garnacha
Graciano
Viura
Tempranillo blanco