After getting a bottle of another hard-to-find wine in a recent wine club shipment and last month’s discussion on Lagrein, let’s talk about a wine called tannat.
From the Latin word ‘’tannare,’’ to tan or leather, Tannat [ta-gnat or ta-not] is a thick skin red wine grape, historically grown in southwest France in another unknown AOC of Madiran along the Pyrenees Mountains near the border of Spain, where it has been grown since the 17th century.
It was so highly regarded, the king of France accepted Madiran wines as payment for taxes. Wow, wouldn’t that be nice?
But nowadays, it is one of the most prominent grapes in — of all places — Uruguay. In fact, more than 4,000 acres of tannat is grown in Uruguay alone. France has only 2,500 acres.
Some purists say that Uruguay is the “true” tannat, as the style is more in line to the old-day Madiran.
Whatever the case, tannat has been adopted as the ‘’national grape of Uruguay,’’ the same way former Bordeaux greats malbec and carmenere, have been adopted by Argentina and Chile. Pascual Harraigue, considered the Father of Tannat in Uruguay, passed away on April 14, 1894. So, in Uruguay, National Tannat Day is … April 14.
Tannat is also grown in Argentina, Australia and South Africa. It’s very rare in the United States. According to the USDA, as of 2019, there are only 632 acres of tannat planted in California, accounting for just 2% of all the tannat produced. Maryland, Virginia, Arizona and Texas have small experimental plantings of tannat, but in Oregon, which is where mine came from, a relatively new process, called micro-oxygenation, allows producers to inject small controlled amounts of oxygen to enter the tanks during fermentation. Like blowing bubbles through a straw. This generates wines with softer tannins than those from France.
Growers have had great success with it, because it is late-budding, hardy and resistant to frost, drought-tolerant, sets huge berry clusters and is less likely to be attacked by vineyard pests, fungus and mold that would devastate more fragile varietals.
It wasn’t until 2002 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives approved a petition by growers to add tannat to the list of grape varieties that could legally be made into wine. I’m not sure why they had anything to do with it. Maybe because of the alcohol. I thought the USDA makes those decisions.
The Madiran AOC laws mandate that tannat must be blended with cabernet sauvignon or cabernet franc, but younger winemakers have been going against the AOC guidelines making and receiving high reviews for their 100% Madiran tannat wines. These wines lean more into red fruit flavors, namely raspberry, tight gripping tannins, and unmistakable power.
In Uruguay, it is the opposite. The tannins come across as softer, while the fruit profiles are mostly black fruits, like blackberry, black cherry, and plum. Uruguay Tannat claims to be one of the healthiest red wine grapes, thanks to much higher levels of antioxidants like polyphenols, flavonoid and resveratrol.
California tannat will have black cherry, cola and chocolate cake show on the palate alongside hints of coffee beans and smoke. Oregon tannat has a bit of all three. Tastes of red and black fruit with vanilla, dark chocolate, with a hint of black licorice, alongside a signature note of cardamom and brown spices.
They are very affordable and are a great value — if you can find them.
A bottle of tannat can be yours for $15. Mine was $25, with reserves in the $40 range.
Depending on where the wine is made and the amount of oak aging it receives, tannat has more gusto than cabernet. Typically, the more oak-aging, the more spice-driven character the wine will have. Likewise, the more maceration (time the juice spends swimming in the grape’s skins), the more intense the color and tannins will be in the finished wine. A few hours of decanting will help soften those tannins and bring the fruit forward. Why not try all four? You may need to have them shipped to you.
Tannat pairings can go toe to toe with a good ribeye, some sausage, roasted lamb or duck. Assorted aged cheeses like Parmesan, will soften the tannins and highlight the food itself.
Vintage tannat will age nicely in your cellar for 10 years of more, if you can wait that long. Whether you’ve had tannat before or are new to the variety, this is a must-try wine.
Remember your eighth-grade English class: tannat is a palindrome, a word spelled the same forward and backwards.
Happy drinking
Stay safe
Chris
The Link LonkApril 21, 2021 at 10:26PM
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SPLENDOR IN THE GLASS: Rare grape prominent in Uruguay - Crossville Chronicle
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