Remember that old Christmas song usually sung by a freckle-faced little boy? “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Gosh, oh gee, how happy I'd be if I could only whistle.” Now you are all grown up and your two front teeth finally came in (hopefully long ago) and your Christmas desire has evolved from lisping out the need to get your front teeth to being able to whistle the tune to “The Lady of Spain.”
Don’t just ask Santa for any two old bottles of Tempranillo; make sure he knows you want the 2007 Crianza and the 2003 Reserva from Montecillo, both from Spain’s premier wine region, Rioja.
Rioja is located three and a half hours north of Madrid in the Cantabrian Mountains. The high elevation, minimal rainfall and clay soil give the Tempranillo grape an ideal place to grow. Generally, wines from Rioja have flavors and aromas that are unique with depth and character; specifically, the Tempranillo grape produces wines that can be enjoyed young and fresh or matured for many years. Tempranillo, in case you wondered, gets its name from the word “temprano,” which means early, because it ripens earlier than most other wine grape varietals.
Bodegas Montecillo have been run by the Osborne Family since 1973 but the winery has an illustrious history dating back to 1874. The winery keeps production under 300,000 cases annually allowing for better quality control from the vineyard to the loading dock. Best of all, wines from Bodegas Montecillo are lovingly made by Maria Martinez Sierra. She has been making wines for over 30 year and treats each vintage and each production like a mother hen caring for her chicks.
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2010.