Vina Las Brujas Tannat 2018

"We love the New World wine growing communities, they’re essentially Emily from Bagpuss, finding lost and broken things, restoring them to their former glory and then displaying them in their shops. How did Emily get that shop? She was a child, why wasn’t she at school? We also don’t recall her ever selling anything, who was paying the rent? She wouldn’t get away with that in this economy. We seem to once again have been side-tracked by a 70s children tv show…
New World countries regularly find unloved grape varieties (usually from France) and make such excellent wine from them, that they become synonymous with their wine industry. Like Malbec in Argentina, Carménère in Chile or Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand. Tannat in Uruguay is a link you may not yet be familiar with, but you will be soon! Tannat is from the southwest of France and still grown a bit but it has come in to its own Uruguay. Here, the tannins are smooth, the texture silky and in high quality wines such as Vina Las Brujas, the palate is rich with flavours of blackberry, quince and eucalyptus. If Emily starts selling Tannat, she’ll turn around her shop in no time!
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"In 1991, Luis Alberto Gimenez and his wife Marta Mendez, with long tradition in the wine business decided to start producing premium wines for the domestic and international market. Strong efforts were necessary to produce unique wine styles representative of the Uruguayan terroir. Focus since the beginning was on the national Uruguayan grape, Tannat. Gimenez Mendez is now one of the leading wine exporters of the country, producing outstanding terroir driven wines.
Gimenez Mendez has three vineyards in the Las Brujas region each with its own distinct microclimate and great emphasis has been placed on matching appropriate grape varieties with plots of land.
The Grapes were hand harvested and manually sorted before destemming and crushing. The must was macerated with its skin at low temperatures before fermentation to extract aromatics without over extracting tannins. Delicate fermentation at temperatures between 14-17°C with selected yeast for 8 days. The wine undergoes oak aging for 3 months before blending and bottling.