2013 Booker Vineyard Tempranillo Paso Robles

(96 Points) Competing with Epoch's top-notch Tempranillo as the best example of the variety in California, Jensen's 2013 Tempranillo is a blockbuster that's not made in every vintage. Black cherries, currants, leather, dried herbs and savory spices all emerge from this full-bodied, thick and unctuously textured beauty. It has the classic tannic grip of the variety, yet that's paired with the hallmark texture and purity of the estate. This is an awesome wine any way you look at it. While certainly the character of Paso’s winemaking motley crew, Booker Vineyard’s Eric Jensen is dead serious when it comes to wine. Creating the estate in 2005 (they planted their vineyard in 2001), today he farms one of the greatest vineyards in the appellation and his wines consistently rank in the top two or three produced in a vintage. Looking at the new 2013s reviewed in this report (his 2012s were all reviewed last year), this vintage was described by Eric as his “holy grail” vintage, and I couldn’t argue with him. These are incredible wines that have another level of depth and texture over past vintages, yet don’t give an inch with regard to purity, precision or focus. The only drawback here is the wines are made in tiny quantities and are moved almost exclusively through his mailing list. Nevertheless, these 2013s are hands down the finest wines to date from this brilliant estate. Jeb Dunnuck eRobertParker.com #220 Aug 2015