Wine Trail Traveler with Erin Sullivan at Wines of Uruguay tasting, Washington, DC

If you haven’t heard yet of Uruguay as a wine producing country, plan to learn about the wines they are crafting soon! Uruguay is an undiscovered South American wine region. Today many of the winemakers are 4th generation family.

Yesterday we attended a tasting of wines from Uruguay. Tannat wines were featured but there were also a number of blends as well as a few white wines. Eighteen wine producers from Uruguay were present.

If you want to know more about the wines from Uruguay, plan to attend the next Wines of Uruguay event in New York on May 27 at the South American Wine Conference, “City Winery”, 155 Varick St. This special event is for media and trade members.

The country of Uruguay has been producing wines for a long time but most of it has been kept in the country. Now the wineries are looking forward to exporting more of their wines.

In addition to the wine tasting, we enjoyed a seminar by Gilles De Chambure, MS. He talked about the country of Uruguay before delving into the wine industry that was accompanied by a tasting of eight tannat wines from eight different wineries.

Facts About Uruguay

• Population: 3.4 million
• The size of the state of Washington
• Literacy: 98%
• Located in the southern hemisphere between the 30th and 35th parallel. (This includes wine regions of Chile, South Africa, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.)
• One of the purest natural ecosystems in the world.
• 475 species of birds
• 82% of the land is agricultural
• In addition to wine the country also produces olive oil.

The primary wine regions of Uruguay include: Colonia, Canelones, Montevideo, and Maldonado.

The main grape variety grown in Uruguay is tannat. Other red varieties include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Other minor red grape vareties include Tempranillo, Syrah, Zinfandel, Petit Verdot, Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo, Marselan and Arinarnoa.

The major white grape is Chardonnay. Other white varieties include Sauvignon Blanc, Semillón and Viognier with minor plantings of Albarino, Petit Manseng and Roussanne.

Interested in finding wines from Uruguay? Check out your favorite wine shop or Total Wine!

Later we will be writing about some of the specific wines we tasted yesterday.

Cheers!
Kathy