La Linea hatched in Peter Leske's head in late 2006, soon after leaving Nepenthe. He had been Winemaker at the super-premium Adelaide Hills company since its foundation just over a decade earlier. Contemplating his next step, he found the aroma and taste of a dry, fine rosé made from Tempranillo grapes turning over and over in his mind. Imagining aromas and flavours that don't exist can be frustrating - but it's the winemaking equivalent of a melody forming in a songwriter's brain; a melody which won't go away until it's played.

While interest in (and plantings of) Tempranillo are growing rapidly in Australia, it's still regarded here as a 'minor' or 'emerging' or 'non-mainstream' variety (depending on your preference for jargon!). Not so in its home in Spain. The Spanish grow it widel