Tempranillo Tempranillo Tempranillo (also known as Ull de Llebre, Cencibel, and Tinta del Pais in Spain, Aragonez or Tinta Roriz in Portugal, and several other synonyms elsewhere) is a black grape variety widely grown to make full-bodied red wines in its native Spain. Its name is the diminutive of the Spanish "temprano" ("early"), a reference to the fact that it ripens several weeks earlier than most Spanish red grapes. Tempranillo has been grown on the Iberian Peninsula since the time of Phoenician settlements. It is the main grape used in Rioja, and is often referred to as Spain's noble grape. The
Durif not be consigned to jug wine when he blended small portions into his reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Since 2002 Assaf Paz enologist and co-owner at Vitkin Winery is consistently producing a single-varietal Petite Sirah as a high end wine sourced from the oldest Petite Sirah vineyard in Israel. Seeing that Israeli "terroir" could grow great Petite Sirah, wineries such as Lewis Pasco the founding winemaker at Recanati followed suit with a Petite Sirah/Zinfandel blend, while others like Sea Horse, Carmel and Tishbi have made single-varietal Petite Sirah in addition to using it for blending. Petite Sirah is sometimes mistakenly spelled "Petite