Tannat crossed the Atlantic with the Basque diaspora: Pascual Harriague planted it in Uruguay in the 1870s, and for generations the grape simply bore his name. It took so thoroughly that Uruguay — the smallest wine country of South America — now grows more Tannat than France, and made it the national grape.
The ocean rewrote it. Under the humid Atlantic climate of the south, Tannat comes rounder than Madiran while staying dark and firm: blackberry, plum skin, cocoa. The vineyards cluster around Montevideo in Canelones, mostly family wineries a short drive from the capital's asado grills — a wine of formidable tannin in a country that eats more beef than almost anyone, perfect symbiosis.