Tempranillo

Tempranillo is Spain's signature red grape, giving structured, medium-to-full-bodied wines with notes of red fruit, leather, and dried herbs that intensify with oak ageing. It thrives across a range of Spanish regions but reaches its most celebrated expression in Rioja, where a tiered ageing classification shapes how each wine is released. Outside Spain, Portugal grows the same variety under the name Tinta Roriz, and it's increasingly popular in warmer New World regions too. If Rioja specifically is what you're after, Rioja Wine narrows things down to the variety's best-known home. For the wider Spanish range, Spanish Wine is worth a look, and Red Wine covers everything else on offer by style.