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JR Reserve Tempranillo 2015

Producer: Jordan River Wines
Region: Mafraq Plateau
Appellation: Mafraq Plateau
Country: Jordan
Wine Type: Red
Variety: Tempranillo
Bottle Size: 750 ml
Alcohol: 13.8%
Soil: Volcanic basalt
Farming Practices: Dry-farmed from aquifers 400 metres beneath the vineyards.
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Cellar Profile


The vineyards of family-owned Jordan River Wines are located on the Mafraq Plateau, on a mountain 80 km north of Amman. This is a holy site to the Abrahamic religions and the World Heritage site of Umm El-Jimal. The iron-rich, organically-poor soil sits upon a massive basalt slab that makes the vines work feverishly to reach the water table. Jordan is ranked as the 3rd most water poor country on earth and the region receives scant rainfall during the dry summers. However, the adjacent Massive Jabal Al-Arab glacier feeds glacial melt into 400-metre-deep aquifers that sustain the vineyards. 330 sunny days per year, on average, allow for full phenolic ripeness in the skins. These grapes are grown at elevation (almost 3000ft), with huge diurnal temperature shifts that impart freshness and acidity in the wines produced. Over 45 different Italian, French and Spanish varieties are planted.

Region


Located on a remarkable landscape atop the Mafraq Plateau, at an altitude of 840 meters. At some point in antiquity, an extinct volcano (Jabal-Al-Arab) poured out fields of basaltic lava over the Mountain Heights Plateau, an area that is Jordan’s most fertile region. The Jordanian climate, with over 330 sunny days yearly, coupled with dry summers and constant breezes, is ideal for grapes and vines. Vast diurnal shifts between day and nighttime temperatures allow the vines to rest, which enhances the characteristics and retains balance of the varieties.

Vineyard


Over 40 types of world-renowned vines, of the best quality, thrive in the mineral rich volcanic soil of the Basalt Desert. Not knowing what works in Jordan, all forty are growing in this ideal mixture, ultimately producing elegant wines. The rain and melting snow, flowing off the 1800m-high Jabal Al-Arab, travels under the volcanic desert surface and accumulates in 400-meters deep aquifers. This water is brought to the surface and used to supply the 120 hectares of ‘dry-farmed’ vineyards.

Varieties


Tempranillo is an early ripening variety that tends to thrive in chalky vineyard soils such as those of the Ribera del Duero and Rioja regions of Spain. In Portugal, where the grape is known as Tinto Roriz and Aragonez, it is blended with others varieties to produce Port. In 2015, Tempranillo was the fourth most widely planted wine grape variety worldwide; 87% of these plantings are in Spain. Tempranillo-based wines result in tasting notes ranging from strawberries, blackcurrants and cherries to prunes, chocolate and tobacco depending on vineyard age and mesoclimate.

Winemaking


Fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel. Matured for twelve months in French barriques and refined in the cellar for at least one year.

Tasting Notes 


Deep ruby in colour and characterized by rich floral aromatics, ripe plum and cherry. On the palate it shows mouth filling red fruit, tobacco and spice. A rich mouth feel with plush tannins is balanced by lovely acidity, leading to long, smooth finish.