Celebrating International Tempranillo Day with a Sumptuous Sincero

I was not aware that last Thursday was International Tempranillo Day until Pris told me.  Since we love wine and have a wine blog it was only fitting that we celebrate such an auspicious occasion.  It also helps that Tempranillo is one of our favorite grape varietals.  In order to celebrate fully Pris and I whipped up some tapas and had our friends Diana Chapa and Trey Mendez over.  Trey had some business that kept him busy, but he did make it for the second bottle.

Pris decided that we would open a bottle of 2007 Sincero from the Ribero del Duero region of Spain.  Of course it goes without saying that this particular Spanish wine is a Tempranillo.  We'd had it before shortly after we moved to Brownsville, and it was a recommendation from the staff at Feldman's Market Center.  Fortunately, since it got such a strong recommendation, we bought two bottles when we first purchased it.

Patatas bravas, garlic shrimp, chorizo/manchego, and the
proscuitto wrapped roasted pear stuffed with manchego.

The Sincero had a light fruit nose that was still robust.  On the palate it was all full fruit and supple tannins.  Light red berries and earthy minerals mix together on the palate to provide a complex and refreshing wine.  One of the great things about this wine is that it starts light in your mouth, and then opens up with well balanced tannins for a crisp finish.

We opened the wine to go with a smattering of tapas that Pris and I put together.  Pris made prosciutto wrapped roasted pears stuffed with manchego cheese.  I made patatas bravas (a type of Spanish fries with aioli and a spicy tomato sauce), garlic shrimp, and toasted garlic bread with manchego and Spanish chorizo.  The wine went great with everything.  So good in fact that the three of us finished things off in short order.  We then moved to a bottle of Altorredondo that Diana brought. 

Patatas  bravas and sauces.

The Altorredondo was every bit as good as I remember it.  You can see the post here: http://rgvinophiles.blogspot.com/2011/04/altorredondo-raising-bar.html.  It was an interesting study in contrast.  The Sincero was light and refreshing, and the Altorredondo was deep, full, and bold.  Yet both wines came from the same grape varietal.  Both wines were excellent, and neither bottle survived the night.  We even got into some Cava that was left over from the shrimp, but that's a review for later.

The Sincero is an excellent wine.  It runs about $14 a bottle, so its a great everyday, or semi-everyday wine.  We got ours at Feldman's Market Center here in Brownsville.  For more information on Sincero's Tempranillo you'll have to Google it and look around.  I wasn't able to find a website for the winery using a simple search, but there's lots of info out there on this wine.