Tannat

I presented my Uruguay slide show last night and it went well. Lots of work spent on it and I'm glad it was enjoyable to watch. 287 total images in about 24 1/2 minutes. I'm going to be working on a much shorter version to put on the web, but so far I'm not happy with the size of the file. It's too big, I think, for easy viewing. I'll keep at it and when I get it down to a reasonable size I'll post its location.

This is a bottle of Tannat wine. Tannat is a highly tannic, black-berried grape grown in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains in the southwest corner of France. A minimum of 40% of this grape is used in blends to make Madiran, a perfumed full-bodied red wine with a meaty texture combined with aggressive, powerful tannins in youth. Although its plantings in France have been declining, Tannat is widely grown in Uruguay, where it is also called 'Harriague', and is employed to make a well-liked varietal wine. Likely Basque in origin, small amounts of this variety are also grown in Argentina. Tannat is also being explored in North America, with limited plantings in Napa Valley and in Virginia where the vine has proven successful in experimental trials.