New World
Uruguay wine
The one genuinely maritime wine country in South America, and the world’s centre for Tannat.
Overview
Uruguay is small, flat and close to the Atlantic, and its climate has more in common with Bordeaux than with anywhere else in South America.
Tannat arrived with Basque immigrants in 1870 and is now the national variety; Uruguay grows more of it than France does.
Uruguayan Tannat is riper and rounder than Madiran’s, because a warmer and more humid climate ripens its considerable tannin more completely. It remains a firmly structured wine.
Albariño has been a notable recent success, suited to humidity in a way most white varieties are not.
Humid and maritime, with rain year-round — the opposite of Argentina and Chile across the continent. Disease pressure, not drought, is the limiting factor, and the viticultural problems are European in kind.
Regions
Wines
Grapes grown here
Sources
Sources consulted
- Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INAVI) — INAVI, Uruguay
- International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) — OIV