Roseburg, Ore.—Southern Oregon has long drawn inspiration for its wines from the Iberian Peninsula. Now it’s tapping into the peninsula’s wines themselves as a means of doing what it does better.

A partnership between Paul O’Brien Winery in downtown Roseburg and Abadia de Acón Winery in Burgos will result in production of proprietary Tempranillo-based wine from Ribera del Duero.

“We’re starting with being the exclusive importer for Abadia de Acón in Oregon, so we’re importing their wines and then…starting with the 2013 vintage, making wines with them,” said Scott Kelley, winemaker and, with Dyson DeMara, co-owner of Paul O’Brien Winery.

The new wine will have its own brand, owned by Paul O’Brien but be made entirely in Spain with grapes from 70-year-old vines taken from select parcels of the 100 acres of Abadia’s own estate vineyards. The initial release will total less than 200 cases, on top of the 1,500 cases Paul O’Brien produces at its own facility.

“We’ll be going over several times a year and be feet on the ground to make this wine in the style that we think will be successful in the U.S., and it will be a different style than they’ve produced in the past,” Kelley told Wines & Vines. “We’re not doing the pump overs, but (we’ll be) very much involved in the process from selecting the sections of the vineyards that we want to utilize how we want to age, how we want to blend and so forth.”

The venture aims to build not only on Southern Oregon’s reputation for Tempranillo, a foundation Earl Jones of Abacela Winery began laying in the late 1980s, but learn what works in Spain and apply the lessons to Tempranillo production in Oregon.

It’s a strategy Kelley saw play out at Robert Mondavi Winery, where he oversaw the Napa winery’s joint ventures with producers in Australia and Italy, including the Frescobaldi family.

His involvement in producing the Mondavi-Frescobaldi wines Danzante, Luce and Lucente from select Tuscan vineyard parcels was both instructive and enriching.

“We made the wines together in Italy and then imported them and sold them through the Robert Mondavi sales force,” he said. “A lot of interesting and valuable education came out of those relationships.”

He hopes the new venture will reap similar rewards for producers in Oregon.

“We believe we have a bit to learn, and hopefully can utilize this to further the winemaking here in the Umpqua,” he said.

While it may seem surprising to outsiders, the partnership with Abadia de Acón is part of a growing network of relationships between Southern Oregon producers and their counterparts in Spain.

Roseburg and Aranda are sister cities, and the relationship has facilitated a partnership with Colegio San Gabriel that’s allowed viticulture and enology students from the Southern Oregon Wine Institute at Umpqua Community College to work in the Ribero del Duero region.

In 2012, for instance, first-year student Matt Cates worked at Dominio de Cair to acquire the 330 hours of internship needed for the associate’s degree in viticulture and enology at Umpqua Community College (see “Winemaking Students Learn Overseas”).

Cates is now winemaker at Agate Ridge Vineyard in Eagle Point, Ore., while Sarah Griffiths, another student who travelled to Spain for an internship, is working in the Portland area.

“A lot of our students have minimal amounts of professional experience in the wine industry, so this serves as their internship, their on-the-job training piece that complements the educational piece,” said Chris Lake, director of the Southern Oregon Wine Institute.

Colegio San Gabriel has also sent students to Umpqua, and while a faculty exchange would be ideal, it has yet to transpire. But it’s part of the overall vision to deepen connections between the two regions.

Similarly, it’s been suggested that Medford leverage its ties with sister city Alba, Italy, to allow local viticulture and enology students to study in northern Italy.

“Our hope is that what ends up happening for students is that they would continue to have those international opportunities,” Lake said.

Those opportunities are likely to come in handy as Northwest wineries explore and experiment with traditionally warm-climate grape varieties such as Barbera, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese and Verdelho.