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tannat

Uruguayan Tannat wines for Tannat Day: Celebrating 14th April

by Amanda Barnes April 10, 2022

I’ve long been a fan of Uruguayan Tannat, and the annual Tannat Day on 14th April is a great excuse to raise a glass. Tannat is Uruguay’s champion grape variety, accounting for about a quarter of all the vineyard plantings at over 1,600 hectares, and Uruguay has more Tannat planted than any other wine country in the world.

Uruguay began celebrating Tannat Day on 14th April in order to mark the date that its first true Tannat champion, Pascual Harriague, passed away in 1894. Harriague started planting Tannat in Uruguay back in the 1870s and gained some international praise for the wines after taking them to wine shows in Europe. His wines were so well known in Uruguay, that the variety Tannat was actually called Harriague for many years (and some producers still call Tannat Harriague!)

On a recent trip in Uruguay, I discovered lots of new delicious Tannat wines while visiting wineries and winemakers. So here are some new Tannat wines to celebrate Tannat Day with – salud!

New Tannat wines to celebrate Tannat Day

Nakkal, Suelto Tannat 2021

Coming from the small natural wine project of Nakkal, this is a vibrant and fresh Tannat. Nicolás Monforte, Santiago Degasperi and Bruno Bresesti only started their Nakkal label a couple of years ago but they’ve really carved out their own style, and Suelto is the epitome of that: juicy, fresh and with lots of energy. A Tannat to drink chilled at lunch.

Pablo Fallabrino, Anarkia 2020

Pablo Fallabrino was the first winemaker in Uruguay to really start pushing for no added sulphite Tannat wines in 2016. I think 2020 is his best vintage yet of this no-added-sulphite Tannat, Anarkia. It has notes of black fruits and pepper with a really lively finish. Pulsating, vibrant stuff.

De Lucca, Tano Tannat Natural 2020

It took Agustina some time to convince her father, known as Tano, to make a ‘natural Tannat’ with no added sulphites or oak, but he took to it like a duck to water. This is a great wine and debut for the new label: fresh black fruit with a spicy spine of tannin and juicy finish. A new face for De Lucca‘s wine portfolio.

Catamayor, Single Barrel No 8

Coming from the excellent 2018 vintage, this is a single barrel selection from Catamayor’s Tannat coming from the schist soils of San José. This is a great wine: lovely bright fruit expression with fine tannins. Lots of vibrancy here but also with the added structure of some oak ageing. This is good now but will also cellar well.

April 10, 2022 0 comment

canelones wine guide; Guide to Canelones wine region and Montevideo in Uruguay, harvesting Tannat wines at Pisano

Featured Posts Uruguay Features Uruguay Wine Guide

A guide to Canelones & Montevideo wine regions

by Amanda Barnes October 22, 2021

written by Amanda Barnes

Canelones and Montevideo are very much the heartland of Uruguayan wine, with a wide range of vines and wines of all different styles and quality levels. However, it is also home to some of Uruguay’s oldest vines, which can produce some superlative wines that are well worth the extra cost and effort involved in producing them.

Guide to Canelones & Montevideo Wine Region

Wineries

Quick Guide to Canelones & Montevideo

Best Wines to try

Map of Canelones & Montevideo

Guide to Canelones & Montevideo wine regions

Five out of every ten Uruguayans live in Montevideo and Canelones, which are also home to eight out of every ten of the vineyards in Uruguay. Canelones and Montevideo are undoubtedly the most important wine regions in Uruguay today and have been ever since the emergence of Uruguay’s wine industry last century.

It’s a no-brainer as to why the vineyards and wineries were originally set up as close as possible to Uruguay’s capital city, Montevideo. With its main market right on its doorstep, the industry was able to thrive, while keeping transport costs to a minimum.

Canelones effectively envelops the capital of Montevideo, like a large Pac-Man chomping on the capital, which is about a tenth of its size. Rich in meadows, woods and waterways, Canelones is a rural and agricultural region. Although Canelones produces a wide range of fruits, cereals and vegetables, viticulture is its main crop and its wine regions extend right across the province.

Between them, Canelones and Montevideo have over 1,000 different vineyards, which are mainly owned by family wineries or growers. Given this figure, they also, unsurprisingly, have the greatest diversity of grape varieties in Uruguay. The impressive range of grapes, from Nebbiolo to Chasselas, reflects the diverse heritage of producers who have settled in the region.

October 22, 2021 0 comment

Tannat Day Uruguay 14th April, Uruguay's red wine

Uruguay Features Uruguay Wine Guide Wine

Celebrate #TannatDay and #UruguayWineWeek with us!

by Amanda Barnes April 5, 2021

written by Amanda Barnes

The 14th April is #TannatDay – a day in which we are all given an excuse to raise a glass of Uruguayan Tannat and celebrate Uruguay’s champion variety in all its purple glory. But why stop there? Instead, we are celebrating Uruguayan wine all week with #UruguayWineWeek and an opportunity to explore the many different wines, wine regions and wine producers of Uruguay.

In collaboration with Uruguay.Wine, a gathering of Uruguayan winemakers and wine families, and an esteemed crowd of wine writers and communicators, we’ll be hosting a week of Uruguayan wine events online and would love you to be part of it! Here’s what’s coming up and how you can join in:

Celebrate #TannatDay: 14th April

Throughout the day on 14th April, we’ll be having live discussions about Tannat and the best wine pairings for the variety over Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Clubhouse. Post your favourite wine pairings and Tannat wines and tag in @southamericawineguide and @uruguay.wine with the hashtag #TannatDay so we can reshare and respond!

Throughout the day on Instagram @SouthAmericaWineGuide we’ll be hosting live interviews with wine writers around the world exploring their favourite Tannat wine pairings. In particular, you can catch up with Lisa Denning aka. @nycrestaurants at 3pm UK (10am EST); Holly Shaw aka. @winenotwhinemom at 4pm UK (11am EST); and with Kelly Mitchell aka. @kellymitchell #thewinesiren at 6pm UK (10am PST).

April 5, 2021 0 comment

Guide to Maldonado wines and the wines of Uruguay

Uruguay Features Beyond Featured Posts Uruguay Wine Guide Wine

A guide to Uruguay’s Maldonado wine region

by Amanda Barnes December 3, 2020

written by Amanda Barnes

The Maldonado wine region of Uruguay is one of the continent’s most exciting — offering a distinctive style of refreshing coastal wines. Get to grips with the unique terroir and delicious wines of Maldonado in our quintessential guide.

Guide to Maldonado Wine Region

Notable Producers in Maldonado

Quick Guide to Maldonado

Best Wines to try from Maldonado

Map of Maldonado

Guide to Maldonado wine region & its refreshing coastal wines

Maldonado is a region of great contrasts. On the one hand, there’s the ostentatious seaside resort of Punta del Este, home to some of the most luxurious hotels and wealthiest casinos in Latin America and on the other, there is sweeping farmland with modest homes and tiny villages, which seem to have remained grounded in the last century.

While I’m not a fan of the superficial veneer that makes Punta del Este stand out in sharp juxtaposition to the otherwise authentic and unassuming charm that Uruguay exudes elsewhere, millions of people are. In fact the population of this elite playground known as the ‘St Tropez of Latin America’ swells fivefold every summer.

Punta del Este and Maldonado, a guide to visiting the wine region and the wines of Uruguay

A major silver lining to having ‘St Tropez’ on your doorstep is that the huge tourism industry is a great bedfellow for Uruguay’s wine industry, and Punta del Este is the main market for Uruguay’s wineries. The growing wine route in Maldonado has also developed thanks to this steady stream of affluent tourists cruising in. Fortunately for them, Maldonado is home to some of Uruguay’s most exciting wines today, which have completely revitalised the wines and image of the country as a whole.

December 3, 2020 0 comment

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