Tannat

Red wine grapeSouthwest France

The style profiled here is a dry, very full-bodied red Tannat wine: dense, dark, very tannic. Typical alcohol is 13.5 to 15%. Serve it at 16 to 18 °C.

Also called Tanat, Moustrou, Moustroun, Bordeleza Belcha, Harriague.

The grape

Tannat is the most tannic red wine grape in commercial use, and the name says so. It comes from Madiran in the Béarn, in south west France, where it was traditionally so hard that the wine needed years in cask before anyone could face it. Its plantings there are small and it would be a footnote if it had stayed at home.

It went to Uruguay in 1870 with a Basque immigrant named Pascual Harriague, and it found a climate that suited it better. The Uruguayan version is softer and more approachable than the French, with the same dark colour and firm structure but riper fruit and less aggression. Tannat is now the national grape and the identity of a small wine industry between two large ones.

The French answer to the tannin was technical. Micro-oxygenation, the controlled introduction of tiny quantities of oxygen during ageing, was developed in Madiran in the early 1990s specifically to soften tannat, and it is now used worldwide. The grape is also unusually high in procyanidins, the compounds behind the claimed cardiac benefit of red wine.

BuyingUruguayan tannat is the friendlier introduction and good value. Madiran needs a decade, or a decant and a piece of roast meat.

Style profile

Our rating of a representative wine
Sweetness
Bone dry
Body
Very full
Tannin
Very high
Acidity
High

Sweetness and structure vary with the producer, region and winemaking. These ratings describe the style above; check the label for the bottle in front of you.

Food pairings

Where it grows

Notable regions
MadiranUruguay

Explore its wine regions

Countries that build on it

Similar grapes

Sources