Vara bringing a taste of Spain with its Tinto Especial 2020

By Rozanna M. Martinez/For the Journal Published: Friday, June 9th, 2023 at 12:02AMUpdated: Friday, June 9th, 2023 at 1:15AM

Tinto Especial is becoming one of Vara Winery & Distillery's staple gems.

The creative concept changes each year with the 2020 vintage focusing on Spanish influences from the Catalonia region.

"It's not going to be the same blend anytime," Djuna Benjamin, winemaker and production manager at Vara Winery & Distillery, said. "… Our 2019 was an American blend, our 2020 is a Spanish blend. Basically me and Louisa (Sawyer Lindquist), our California winemaker, travel around California and Spain, sometimes New Mexico as well, and look for the best lots that we can find and bring them back here."

Vara's lineup involves several types of wines including its staples: Tinto Especial, Tempranillo and Garnacha.

"When we’re sort of thinking about what we want the Tinto Especial to be that year, we just go through all the different lots that we’ve picked out and try and highlight the best ones and make the best blend that we can out of the best odds and ends that we have left in our cellar."

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The Tinto Especial 2020 showcases lots from the Catalonia region of Spain and incorporates some California components.

"It's all based around a Cariñena that we purchased from Empordà, Spain," Benjamin said. "… We had a decent amount of that. We didn't want to do a Cariñena straight this year, so that was kind of the basis of this wine. It was such a delicious Cariñena, however, we felt like it needed a little bit of rounding out. It was really pretty spice heavy. It was a very deep wine and we wanted to make something that was a little bit rounder, a little bit more fruit forward, a little more lighthearted."

The Cariñena was used as a basis for the wine and blended with other lots acquired from other parts of the Catalonia region.

"We did a bunch of different trials with a bunch of other little lots that we had," Benjamin explained. "We blended some Mencía in there and some Cabernet (Sauvignon) and Tempranillo, both from California. And then finally a little bit of Garnacha, Syrah and Merlot from Montsant, Spain, which is another region in Catalonia, a little bit further west."

The individual lots were blended at Vara and aged for 15 months in 78% neutral oak to highlight fruit flavors and 22% new French oak to add fine-grained wood tannins and smoky accents, according to a Vara fact sheet. The wine was then bottled and matured at the winery for an additional 18 months to allow for the development of a complex bouquet.

The result is a wine with aromas of ripe summer plums, boysenberries, tart cherries and a hint of spicy white pepper, according to Vara's tasting notes. Ample tannins and a full body of flavors including black currant, blackberry, eucalyptus, anise and graphite dance on the palate.

"With this type of wine that's blended and (has) a little bit of a bigger body and (has) a little bit more oak character in it, you always want to give that wine a little bit of time in bottles so that it can rest and all the flavors can kind of fuse together and make a delicious, smooth, glass of wine," Benjamin said. "… It is drinking perfectly right now, however, it is also a good wine that can definitely feel with more age too. So it's ready to drink now, but it's also going to be different but just as good in two, three years from now."

About 400 cases of the Tinto Especial 2020 were produced and will be released next month. A few cases of the Tinto Especial 2019 are currently available for purchase. More information on Vara can be found at varawines.com.

Vara recently restructured how it will be releasing its wines.

"We’re kind of launching this concept of little gems, which is all going to be under 300 cases or less, maybe sometimes up to 350," Benjamin explained. "But all small-batch limited releases that will be mostly released to our club members. So it's an incentive to join our club because we’re going to be releasing those four times a year. Small lots, really special lots, that will be pretty much club only unless we were running a special one day in the tasting room … We have really a lot of exciting things: single batch Cariñena, single batch Garnacha, Chardonnay. We’re trying to keep our club really exciting and really interesting to show off what we can do."