A wine tasting at Four Sisters Ranch in San Miguel, California introduced us to Tempranillo — a Spanish grape that deserves far more attention than it gets in the United States.
A Grape Worth Pursuing
Whether they grow their own grapes or source from other vineyards, the wine businesses worth visiting are the ones producing something that genuinely challenges your palate. On this occasion we visited Four Sisters Ranch in San Miguel, California for a tasting, and came away educated on a grape we'd barely heard of before: Tempranillo. It's Spain's most important red grape — the backbone of Rioja — but it's rarely mentioned in American wine conversations, and even more rarely planted here.
"The Tempranillo was a revelation: complex, food-friendly, and unlike anything we'd had from California before."
What Is Tempranillo?
According to Wine Folly, Tempranillo is Spain's answer to Cabernet Sauvignon — structured, age-worthy, and capable of expressing enormous complexity depending on where it's grown and how it's made. The name comes from the Spanish word for 'early,' a reference to the grape's tendency to ripen ahead of other varieties. In California's central coast, the warm days and cool nights create conditions that suit it well, producing wines with ripe fruit, firm tannins, and an earthy backbone that sets them apart from the fruit-forward California reds most people are used to.
Four Sisters Ranch
Four Sisters Ranch is a family operation in San Miguel, in the northern part of San Luis Obispo County. The tasting room has the relaxed, unhurried feel of a place that doesn't need to impress anyone — the wine does that on its own. The Tempranillo we tasted was a revelation: complex, food-friendly, and unlike anything we'd had from California before. If you're traveling the central coast and you have any interest in wine, this is the kind of stop that makes the detour worthwhile.
