Six Sigma Ranch Tempranillo

Deep, deep purple red color. Very attractive bouquet of dark berries, black peppper and dusty cedar. Full bodied flavors of dark berry fruits and black pepper. Tannins softening but still giving a firm backbone to the wine. The wine required decanting to remove the small amount of sediment.

At dinner while enjoying tuna-steak at Albion Inn near Mendocino. The pairing worked out well. The wine was better than the last few days, but not outstanding. The temranillo was nicely balanced due to the oak and had a smoother character than others I've sampled. The wine was a nice break from other varieties and enjoyable, just not worth going out of the way for -- worked out quite well with the meal --

Rich, delicious, chewy blackberry fruit with toasty oak, chocolate, and coffee flavors, strong tannins, good structure, much more intense fruit and oak than typical temparillo

Nicely made, but why the French oak? dark garnet in color. Fruit dominated by blackberries, figs, and coffee. Chewy tannins, and a real jolt of vanillin oak. None of the characteristic temp smokiness.