Review Date: 07-11-2010

After a couple of decades visiting Uruguay, and the neighboring wine producing regions in Argentina, Chile and Brazil, I've become pretty familiar with the range of quality in the "southern cone".

Don Pascual has become one of the largest producers in the past 6 years in Uruguay. It's a tiny country as compared to it's neighbors so even scaling-up seems boutique to us. Having said that, the Uruguayan wine producers are not entirely naive regarding breaking into the U.S. and European markets. They have been working to create a niche for Tannat; one of the lesser varietals blended as a tonal accent in classic clarets. They would like to repeat the success their larger neighbor to the west has done with another Bordeaux varietal i.e. Malbec in Argentina Malbec.

This particular Tannat (Pueblo Del Sol) comes grapes about 60km outside the capital city of Montevideo. To give some context, this area gets about as much sun as Sonoma in a given season but with a bit higher humidity. Also, it's as close to the coast as that, but with the ocean temperature being warmer (think Atlantic near South Carolina). This wine is quite decent as a table wine, especially for the price, and has enough structure to complement. I like the fact that it's not engineered wine; Uruguayan producers at this level do not even try to be showy and the result is a wine with decent balance and fruit-forward fragrance. The color is reasonably ruby and less finish as compared to other more expensive, inky Tannat of Uruguay. At this price, the result is a very good wine that is ready now but has 3-4 years to improve.

I was so glad to see K&L start to carry Uruguayan Tannat...for one reason, so that I don't have to bring them back with me from my trips there every year. :-)