Bouza Tannat Pan de Azúcar

The Bouza winery stands out as one of the ones with the greatest reach and highest potential in Uruguay’s wine sector. However, the first family business was set up in 1956 when the current owner’s parents emigrated to the country from Galicia (Spain) and decided to set up a bakery and fresh pasta factory that eventually became a significant food industry. It was their son, Juan Bouza and his wife Elisa Trabal, who sold the factory and decided to dedicate themselves to producing grapes and wine. Bodega Bouza now has 30 hectares of vineyards, spread across three estates near Montevideo: Las Violetas, Melilla and Pan de Azúcar. Based on the premise of continuing to improve the quality of their wines, and focussing less on quantity, their productions are limited editions that normally sell out within a year of being put on sale.

Among the broad portfolio of wines covering many different styles, we find Bouza Tannat Pan de Azúcar, a red wine made from the country’s star variety, Tannat, from the Pan de Azúcar vineyard in the municipality of Maldonado. Vines planted on stony soil and cultivated following organic principles. The grapes are harvested by hand berry by berry and, once they reach the winery, they are vinified plot by plot. Fermentation takes place in different containers at a controlled temperature of 24ºC and the wine macerates for 8 days with two pump-overs and one cap plunge per day. The wine is then aged for 13 months in French and American oak barrels. Finally, it spends 6 to 18 months in the bottle before being released for sale.

Following traditional methods that get the best out of this variety of Burgundian origin, the Bouza Tannat Pan de Azúcar wine possesses the structure and colour of new world wines and the elegance and freshness of old world wines.