Abacela

For years Earl and Hilda Jones have pursued their passion to produce fine wine from Spain's noble Tempranillo grape... in America. Despite Tempranillo's obvious quality role in Spanish wine production and its utilization in America for more than a hundred years, Americans vintners had, by the early 1990's only produced jug quality wine from the varietal. Why was the wine industry in America trapped in this rut and unable to produce fine wines similar to those produced in Spain's Rioja and Ribera Del Duero? Travel and research in Spain revealed that a fairly specific climate, characterized by a cool spring, dry-hot summer and a cool early autumn was closely associated with and likely a key requirement for production of fine Tempranillo. Learning that in the USA the grape had been historically grown in the hot central valley of California, they suspected the inability of Americans to produce fine Tempranillo wine was the result of growing the variety in the wrong climate.