Tempranillo
Also known as Tinta del País, Tinta Roriz, Cencibel
Rioja / Ribera del Duero, Spain
Spain's most important red grape, valued for its balance of fruit and structure and its affinity for oak aging, forming the backbone of Rioja.
Sensory profile
Characteristics
Flavor & aroma
At a glance
Production facts
Prevalence
Widely planted
Climate
Moderate climate
Ripening
Early season
Wine styles
Still
Where it's grown
Geography
Shaded areas are the state, province or département(s) containing each region, so they run wider than the appellations themselves.
Spain
Rioja
Traditionally aged extensively in American oak, producing the grape's most internationally recognized style.
Ribera del Duero
Known locally as Tinto Fino; higher-altitude sites give darker, more powerful wines.
Portugal
Douro Valley
As Tinta Roriz, a key blending grape in both Port and increasingly serious dry reds.
Background
Origin & History
Tempranillo's name derives from "temprano," Spanish for "early," a reference to its tendency to ripen earlier than most other Spanish varieties. A 2012 Spanish study found its parents to be Albillo Mayor, a white grape of central Spain, and Benedicto, a variety now almost unknown. Long cultivated across the Iberian Peninsula, it goes by an unusually large number of regional names — Tinto Fino or Tinta del País in Ribera del Duero, Tinta Roriz and Aragonez in Portugal, Cencibel in La Mancha — a patchwork that for a long time obscured just how widely a single grape underpinned Spanish winemaking.
It became internationally celebrated through Rioja, where traditional producers age it extensively in American oak barrels, developing characteristic notes of vanilla, dill, and leather alongside its core red-fruit character. In Portugal's Douro Valley, as Tinta Roriz, it's also a key component of Port and other fortified wines, and it has since been planted successfully in Australia, the United States, and beyond.
Lineage
Family tree
Ancestry above, descendants below. Click a related grape to explore its own lineage.