Uruguay : A Tale of Two Tannats

Last week saw the arrival of a trade mission in its most old fashioned and attractive sense. This occurred when a regiment of Uruguayan wineries turned up in Dublin to look for agents to import their wines into Ireland.

Uruguay is an almost forgotten South American state in the European view of the world, which divides South America up into Argentinean beef, Chilean wine, Venezuelan revolutionary oil politics and the beach at Rio de Janeiro.

Seated between Brazil and Argentina, it is more than twice the size of Ireland, in fact it is about the size of the UK, but with a population of just 3.5 million rather than the UK’s 60 million.

Like nearly all of South America it was first explored by Europeans in the 1500s, but in the case of Uruguay essentially passed over by both of the great powers, Spain and Portugal, as they carved up the continent.

The reason they left Uruguay alone was the ferocity of the local indigenous peoples and crucially, the total lack of mineral wealth in Uruguay. This inadvertently has today provided Uruguay with its most treasured asset its totally unspoilt environment.

Rather like Ireland, this unspoilt environment was not previously over appreciated, certainly until the advent of mass tourism in the 1960s as it was not something that could be turned into money. Again like Ireland, just as the world began to travel, violence and instability made both nations unattractive to all but the most committed travellers.

Like Ireland, Uruguay is essentially flat and its principal weather factor is its vast Atlantic coastline.

Unlike Ireland the overall climate is basically sub tropical, but cooled dramatically by the Atlantic, it sits on the same latitude as the wine regions of South Africa, New Zealand and parts of Australia. However it most closely resembles New Zealand in climate in the New World and remarkably in look and feel, the low undulating Medoc in Bordeaux.

The Atlantic Ocean and the lack of any significant mountains means that rain, washes in as regularly and as unpredictably as in coastal Europe like Bordeaux and of course ourselves.

It is therefore not altogether surprising that the national grape of Uruguay, though founded by Spanish and Portuguese interests, is French. The surprise is that it is Tannat, not Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tannat is the grape of Southern Aquitaine, a country grape of the lower Bordeaux, it is found in the wines of Cahors, it is found in parts of the Dordogne, Bergerac and in the Armagnac region south of Bordeaux. Above all it is found in the wines of South West France namely AC Madiran red wine and Irouleguy’s rose wines, inland from Biarritz.

It is not a grape, or indeed a wine, that many outside these regions overly value. It was often regarded as a crude, country wine. Suitable for the carafe in the local roadside café in a sleepy southern French town, where it tasted meaty and rough. It was the natural ally in the battle at meal times with boar, pungent cheese, very chunky pate and massively overcooked duck.

It was however reasonably easy to grow, produced pretty large volumes and reacted with a Gallic shrug to rugged variable weather as long as the predominant seasonal warmth was present. Perfect then for the Atlantic French coast. They get the heat, but they also get plenty of rain as many a disgruntled Irish visitor will testify.

By 1700, Spain had opted to establish a colonial stronghold on the south of the vast River Plate inlet that today separates Argentina and Uruguay, while Portugal had secured what is today Brazil.

The Argentinean capital of Buenos Aires sits almost directly on the opposite bank of the Rio del Plata to the Uruguayan capital Montevideo. Both were Spanish creations, Buenos Aires the commercial and political capital, Montevideo the natural and well enclosed port basin, which became the military and naval base that protected and controlled the Rio Del Plata.

By the end of the 18th century, the native inhabitants had been almost completely eradicated through massacre and disease, much more completely than in either Argentina or Brazil. The population is essentially entirely European and following European politics closely the colonials spent the next 100 years breaking from Spain, then breaking from Brazil and finally declaring independence in 1828.


A Tale of Two Tannats

The most important wine development occurred in 1875, when Pascal Harriague, a Basque of French origin arrived in Uruguay and brought with him considerable quantities of Tannat vines from the Madiran region in south west France. He planted about 200 hectares, a very considerable plot indeed and became the father of modern commercial Uruguayan wine.

Up until that point, there had been reasonably widespread wine growing but on a very small scale largely for family consumption.

Even though Harriague had finally struck gold with the right varietal for Uruguay, the presence of well established ranching and other agriculture meant that the wine business stayed and remains a largely boutique affair with no industrial scale production as in Chile or Argentina.

Happily, local consumption was more than enough to meet the sales ambitions of most of the family run Bodegas.

This was in part the secret of Tannat’s success in Uruguay.

In France, particularly as the Co-op era took off, the emphasis was on volume, not, quality. While even where care was taken with quality it was in a region that had no reputation other than for carafe wines so few had the money to invest in proper treatment of the wines from Tannat.

New oak, careful picking and de-stemming and the full fine wine treatment in the cellar were not forthcoming except in rare cases like AC Madiran’s star wine Chateau Montus, which immediately of course garnered a fine reputation.

All around Montus in the AC Madiran and in neighbouring appellations bad wines continue to be made in two basic styles, weak, metallic tinged muck and the near classic black, headache inducing tannic monster that the locals seem to prefer.

Happily of course the Uruguayan Tannat experience is based singularly on an approach that French players such as at Chateau Montus have now adopted.

Money from ranching and a lucrative local demand for decent wine meant that in Uruguay they very quickly adopted a careful, labour and finance intensive approach to Tannat growth.

Leading boutique wineries like Pisano in the Progreso Region of Origin just north of the Capital Montevideo are typical of the general approach of the 250 or so wineries throughout Uruguay.

Bodegas Pisano

The winery was founded in 1914 with the arrival of the second generation of the Pisano family in Uruguay. They had come from Italy, specifically Liguria, but there is also a Basque heritage through marriage completing the typical Uruguayan characteristic.

Unlike the under resourced and frankly not infrequently un-ambitious vignerons of south west France. Pisano treats his Tannat like a top Burgundian producer.

The vineyard is manicured, there are no insecticides used, no New World irrigation, though frankly it is hardly needed, no chemical fertilizers or herbicides. Nitrogen is fixed using the planting of clover between the vines. Grass is grown to fix water and there is a full green harvest.

The vineyards are hand picked and once in the winery the Tannat is treated like china. The Pisano winery has a range of tanks like all modern wineries in which different qualities of grapes are fermented and its barrels, are very expensively are new French Oak. In their case from Burgundy.

They make several classes of Tannat, a fine Cabernet Sauvignon and a surprisingly muscular and complex white wine from usually merely fragrant Torrontes.

The stars of their wines however are a Bordelais style blend called Arretxea and a unique construction of their own called ETXE ONEKO which honours their Basque heritage.

Etxe Oneko 2004 (90)

It is a outrageously gorgeous fortified wine made from old vine Tannat. In this case from a vineyard planted in 1942. The wine is made in a widely complicated fashion that crosses Port techniques like stopping the fermentation with the addition of spirits and previous to that a sort of Amarone like ripasso phase. The result is a liquid treacle like confection with the cut and heft of a vintage Port, then the cool savoury finish of an Amarone.

Arretxea 2002 (91)

This is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Tannat, with 50% being Tannat and the other 50% being evenly split between the Cabernet and Merlot. It is a selection of the best parcels of vines, the wine is aged in new Burgundy barriques and the final wine is a selection of these parcels down to around 30 barrles. Total productionis around 8000 bottles. It is a rich heavy wine that needs plenty of decanting and throws quite a bit of sediment which is entirely natural and harmless. It is a rich, luscious wine with dark ripe berries, intense in flavour with layers of secondary chocolate and toasty notes emerging.


Bodegas Juanico

The Establecimiento Juanico is another fine wine winery, with just over 500 hectares under vine, they are also like Pisano located just around the capital. It this case in the Canelones Region of Origin. They make a stunning rich Tannat called Don Pascual which is very intense and much more savoury in character than many Uruguayan tannats, very adult. In addition they also make a fortified Tannat, but this is a straight Port like affair and very opulent.

Don Pascual, Tannat Roble 2005 (88)
Familia Deicas Licor de Tannat 2004 (89)


Bodegas Bouza

A small family run winery again centred on the capital. Here the winery has the look and feel of a high end boutique Californian operation with manicured vineyard and winery buildings, a restaurant and a welcoming hand for visitors. How unlike Madiran or indeed the Medoc. The wines include the standard Tannat and Merlot blend, a straight Tannat and more unusually a Tannat Tempranillo blend which works well to produce a creamy, toasty smooth take on the Tannat. Their best wine on show was a surprisingly a Merlot which was full of backbone, spice and bright lighter berried fruits. Rather weakly it is called B9 after the vineyard plot number.


Bouza Chardonnay 2005 (86)
Bouza Tannat Merlot (86)
Bouza Tannat Tempranillo (88)
Bouza Merlot B9 (90)


Best of the rest

Bodegas Nelson Stagnari, Del Pedregal Riserva, Tannat 2004 (90)
Bodegas Castillo Viejo, Catamayor Reserva Cabernet France Tannat 2004 (90)
Bodegas Castillo Viejo, Catamayor Family Reserve Cabernet Franc 2004 (92)

Vino Progresso, Tannat, Uruguay, 2002 (88) around €13 in Superquinn
Vino Progresso, Cabernet sauvignon, Uruguay, 2003 (87) around €13 in Superquinn

The French Competition

Chateau Montus, AC Madiran 2001 (90) around €26 from Le Caveau, Kilkenny, Ely Wine Bar and selected Independents

The Uruguayan wine fair was well attended by the Irish wine trade who are always on the look out for something new to tempt consumers, and presumably with prices seemingly about 25% lower than Chile and Argentina we may see hot competition emerging. Superquinn as ever have been quick off the mark and have two excellent Uruguayan wines already on sale, but watch this space as the desire for well priced, well made wines and their sudden availability is an explosive and happy bit of synchronicity.