In trendoid Australian restaurants nowadays you’d be forgiven for thinking that a Spanish admiral got here before Arthur Phillip. Every eatery is a tapas bar. Chorizo is the new saveloy, and tempranillo the default wine. And I for one couldn’t be happier, for tempranillo is one of those wonder red wines. When on song it has the sort of lifted aromaticity you usually get in pinot noir; it has the spice and earthiness associated more regularly with shiraz, and it has the manly, Mr Darcy-like tannins more typical of cabernet. All of which makes it so versatile when it comes to food: from richly stewed octopus to a cigarette, tempranillo has few culinary blindspots.

In order to define tempranillo on historical principles, this month we visit the variety’s spiritual homeland – Rioja. This is courtesy of Australia’s finest importer of Iberian wines, The Spanish Acquisition, whose Grand Inquisitor, Scott Wasley, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject. Mr Wasley is the man responsible for many of the high-quality sherries and Spanish whites, rosado wines, and reds you see on posh wine lists. And that’s his main game: wholesaling. His wines have but a small retail presence. Hence this month’s extraordinary offer: restaurant wines without restaurant mark-ups, plus Mr Wasley’s generous 20 per cent Rioja discount to all Speccie readers.

The following examples of tempranillo are all made with an eye to Rioja’s true spirit of place. Unlike so much generic Rioja, these are not multi-sub-regional tempranillo blands – I’m sorry – I mean blends – that comply with Rioja wine regulador co-op laws (a hangover of Francoist anti-individualism at its best. Just imagine if Burgundy was solely run in this co-op way, with pinot noir grapes from Gevrey-Chambertin, from Vosne-Romanée and from Nuits-St-Georges all being blended together, bottled, and branded ‘Bourgogne’…). So, no, there’s nothing homogenous about these tempranillos. They are wines from small vineyards around small villages that speak with a true and colloquial timbre, as opposed to sounding like the dominatrix robot voice in your car, fascistically telling you when to turn hard right.

1) Telmo Rodriguez ‘Corriente’ Tempranillo DOCa Rioja 2012, $33 down from $41. Winemaker Telmo Rodriguez is averse to the internationalisation of wine flavours. His newly released ‘corriente’ celebrates the unadorned, undistorted tempranillo reds of historical Rioja. Grapes from bush vines ferment in concrete vats before spending a year in over-dimensional foudre barrels. Aromas of clay and herbs introduce a mouth-filling juicy-fruit hint of wild berries. Before it gets too flirty, however, the wine’s calmed down by dry, chalky tannins. It’s more savoury than not, to the point where it should almost be sold with a chorizo strapped to the bottle.

2) Alegre y Valganon ‘La Calleja’ Tempranillo DOCa Rioja 2012, $36 down from $45. This little two and a half acre vineyard is on the very western border of Rioja, and at an altitude of 580 metres – the highest in the region. Altitude equals attitude, of course, and the cool weather gives this red wonderfully taut acidity and tight tannins. There’s a core of richer morello and cranberry fruit underscored by classic tempranillo leather and tobacco leaf. The fine acidity here calls out for lamb shoulder spruced with sherry vinegar slowly roasted on a bed of chopped red onions. (Just call me Jaime Olivera.)

3) Lindes de Remelluri ‘Viñedos de San Vicente’ Tempranillo DOCa 2011, $44 down from $55. The first of two tempranillo reds that do so much to highlight the potential of Rioja’s distinct vineyards. Both from the region’s northern hills, the villages of Labastida and San Vicente are just 5km apart, and are made by the same winemaker in the same simple manner. This San Vincente is a sunny vineyard on rich soils. The effect is a giving, earthy, leathery, dry, and textural wine with a long, stretched-out palate built on determined tannins and mineral acidity.

4) Lindes de Remelluri ‘Viñedos de Labastida’ Tempranillo DOCa 2011, $44 down from $55. The Labastida on the other hand is more lightly-bodied, yet still with that distinctive blood-and-concrete bouquet of Rioja. A deep core of tight, dark fruit around which all the textural elements swirl; with a cooler vineyard aspect brighter fruit and fresh herbal aromatics are to the fore. It steps deftly and with real charm.