Twisted Oak Calaveras County The Spaniard 2005
Region: Calaveras County
Winery: Twisted Oak
Variety: Tempranillo, Grenache, Graciano

Made at Twisted Oak by Winemakers Of Unusual Size; this swash-buckling Calaveras blend is so big you'll need six fingers to hold the glass. It's inconceivable that one could resist the aromas of black currants and clove spices, the flavors of blueberries and plums and tannins as big as Fezzik himself. This wine will certainly leave you mostly dead. Share it with your special buttercup, a gentle giant, or the entire Kingdom… as you wish.
2005 vintage now available!
The Spaniard is a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano, and Grenache - to learn more, scroll down to our Geek Sheet.

Gold Medal, San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition! (2004 vintage)
Geek Sheet Data for 2005 Calaveras County The Spaniard
(click here for printable PDF Geek Sheet) (learn more! check out our Geek Sheet Cheat Sheat)
Tasting Notes
We have quite a hodgepodge of tasting notes for The Spaniard, so rather than wrap a narrative of questionable cleverness around them, we're just going to throw them right at you: "Cherry Sweet Tart" "Leather berry berry" "Oakberry pepper" "Great gams" (gams?) "Fruitalicious" "Way better than beer" "A great [Italian] red" (that was one confused taster, and we won't repeat the inappropriate ethnic characterization that rhymes with Winnebago.) Our favorite: "It's turtles all the way down!" OK, so that last one is maybe too hip for the room (you can read about it on Wikipedia) - we're pretty sure he was referring to the long finish!
Production Notes
In 2005 we harvested our first significant lots off of the estate vineyard at the winery in Vallecito. We were very excited about the quality and very quickly determined that this fruit would go into our Spaniard program. Our Sheep Shack Vineyard is the first block of Tempranillo we ever planted (first of anything for that matter). It is located in Murphys about two blocks out of town on a sloping south eastern facing hillside. The block has given us top notch Tempranillo consistently for about 4 years now, making it a great match for our flagship wine. The 2005 growing season started with a late bloom followed by a fairly average warming season which enabled us to acclimate the vines to the intense summer in this warm region. At the winery, we gently destemmed and crushed the fruit into small 4' x 4' boxes and fermented them over 2 weeks. The cap was punched down 4 to 5 times a day during the early part of fermentation, reducing to twice a day in later stages. After two weeks, the must was pressed and then racked into brand new French oak barrels for secondary fermentation. We then pulled out the wines, blended in the Graciano and Garnacha for depth and brightness, and then sent the wine back down to barrel for a long winter's nap before bottling.








TECHNICAL NITTY GRITTY
Varietals & Vineyards:32% Tempranillo, Twisted Oak Sheep Shack Vineyard30% Tempranillo, Spaniard block, Twisted Oak Winery 25% Graciano, Willow block, Twisted Oak Winery 13% Garnacha, Oruga and Colina Roja blocks, Twisted Oak WineryOak Program:70% new French oak10% new American oak20% two year old French oakFood Pairings: If you don't ever drink this with lamb, you're not livin' right!!

Posted by thewinery on January 27th, 2008 at 3:24pm | report comment