Tannat: Uruguay's Dark, Muscular Answer to Cabernet

If you drink Cabernet for its spine and its dark fruit, Tannat gives you more of both, usually for less. It is Uruguay's flagship red, and it is one of the most powerfully structured grapes in the glass anywhere.

What it tastes like

Tannat leads with blackberry and black plum, dark and a little brooding, with dried cherry underneath. Behind the fruit you get licorice, woodsmoke, and cocoa, and in older bottles a suggestion of leather. It is dry, full-bodied, and high in acidity.

The signature is the tannin. Tannat carries more of it than almost any red you can name, an echo you can hear in the grape's own name. In young, unaged versions that structure can be gripping and firm, a wall you feel across the whole roof of your mouth. Uruguay's damp Atlantic climate rounds it off more than Madiran ever did, so a good Uruguayan bottle balances the grip with plush, ripe fruit rather than leaving you with bare bones.

From Madiran to Montevideo

Tannat is French by birth. Its home is Madiran, in the Basque foothills of southwest France, where it has long made some of the sternest, most tannic wines in the country. That could have been the whole story.

Then, in the 1870s, a Basque immigrant named Pascual Harriague planted it in Uruguay. It took to the place. For decades Uruguayans even called the grape Harriague, after the man who carried it across the Atlantic. Today Tannat is Uruguay's signature variety, grown mostly around Canelones near the capital and increasingly in the coastal hills of Maldonado, and the country has done more to soften and modernize the grape than France ever bothered to.

That is the underdog turn. A grape written off as a rough, rustic workhorse in its homeland found a second country that believed in it, and made it the national red.

Bottles to look for

Uruguay is where to start. Bodega Garzón, in Maldonado, is the most widely exported name and a reliable introduction, with a Reserva that lands in accessible territory and a single-vineyard bottling for more. Familia Deicas, Bouza, Pisano, and Marichal are other established producers whose Tannats reach the US market. In France, look for Madiran on the label; those wines run firmer and more austere.

I will be straight about the risk. Young Tannat can drink like a mouth-drying wall, all grip and no give, and if you open the wrong bottle at the wrong time you may decide the grape is not for you. Give it an hour of air, or find one with a few years on it, or reach for a Uruguayan bottle over a young Madiran. Handled right, it rewards you. Handled carelessly, it can be a chore. I have not put a formal score on the ones I have tried, and I would rather tell you that than pretend to a precision I do not have.

Where to buy

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Tannat is more available in the US than most underdog grapes, largely thanks to Uruguay's export push. You will find Garzón and a handful of others at better wine shops and online, usually in a friendly price band for the quality.

browse Tannat on Wine.com →

If you're switching from a famous grape

Reach for Tannat when your Cabernet Sauvignon feels overpriced for what is in the bottle. You get the same dark fruit and firm structure, pushed a shade deeper, often at a lower number on the shelf. Start with a Uruguayan bottle rather than a young Madiran, and give it air.

Wines Like Cabernet Sauvignon and Order This Instead.

Part of Lesser-Known Wines: 17 Obscure Grapes Worth Switching To — the full underdog-swap guide.

— Chris Berry