A perfectly suited Mediterranean variety.

Tempranillo

Due to the mild, ocean influenced Mediterranean climate of McLaren Vale, a wide range of grape varieties grow well here. Tempranillo is widely grown in Spain where the climate and conditions can be much hotter than McLaren Vale. Its suitability for McLaren Vale is actually increasing as we experience hotter conditions with more heat events during the growing and ripening seasons. With only a few years of experience working with this variety, I've found that it becomes flavour ripe at a lower sugar level, which translates to lower alcohol in the bottle. This bright fruity young red is 1% alcohol lower than the other red wines I produce. The flavours and textures of Tempranillo work very well with a broad range of foods.

Style features

Gently made with very little oak, yet fleshy, dark, complex and mysterious. This quirky wine will grow on you!

Vintage Rating

8/10. A healthy growing season which produced bright concentrated wines.

Food Matching

Drink with lasagne, grilled portobello mushrooms, slow cooked lamb shanks and a smoked provolone cheese.

When to drink

Drink now to 2026.

Why the name?

‘Conejo Joven’ (pronounce ‘j’ like ‘h’) is Spanish for ‘Young Rabbit’. A long time coming, this wine completes my immediate family of wines! Named for my son Tobias, who is a Golden Rabbit in Chinese Astrology. Rabbits are lucky, don’t take unnecessary risks, are polite, peaceful and funny. They are also meticulous and clean (perhaps Tobias will grow into these traits!). In many ways, these characters reflect this wine. Clean, familiar and friendly – definitely a no risk wine to open with many foods. It has a bright, exciting edge to it. Give it a go, I’m sure it will be your new favourite!

Pronounced ‘tem-pra-nee-yo’

The colour is a bright young red with vivid purple hues. On the aroms, a ripe inky, dark cherry note comes forward, with raspberries, spice and a touch of licorice rounding it out. As gentle as we could be with the fruit, the natural fruit tannin inherent to this variety makes its presence known on the palate. But it turns a potential ‘lolly red’ into a serious young wine with time ahead of it. Bright red fruits and a wonderous underlying fullness speak of its impending maturation into a generous example of this variety.

New

Click to enlarge

2019 Rusty Mutt Tempranillo

Name: 2019 Rusty Mutt Tempranillo
SKU: 19RMTMPDOM
Price: 35.00 AUD
Availability: InStock

$35.00

Our next vintage of McLaren Vale Tempranillo has just been bottled. We’ll be sending it out for review soon but the Father-in-law gives it a big thumbs up, even against the 2018 which was his favourite 🙂

448 in stock

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