VISITING URUGUAY

By Rose Murray Brown MW Published in The Scotsman 2 March 2024

I am standing in a vineyard planted with Arneis, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and Barbera. They might all be Italian grapes, but I am a very long way from their homeland in Piedmont.

I am at Bodega Pablo Fallabrino, a small family estate in the cool coastal Atlantida region of Uruguay, one hour east of Montevideo just 4km from the Plata estuary. Fallabrino is a laid-back self-taught maverick who calls himself a ‘free winemaker’ and an avid surfer in the nearby ocean. He makes dynamic range of wines with funky labels, all with a nod to Italy, and was recently voted Uruguay’s Winemaker of the Year by Tim Atkin MW.

“Italy is in my blood”, says Fallabrino. “My grandfather immigrated to Uruguay from Alessandria in Piedmont in 1920 and began making wine in the 1930s”. Pablo’s own passion for Italy means that today almost all his 12 hectares are Italian grapes, alongside Uruguay’s flagship red Tannat and international whites Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer.

“I would love to be fully organic here; I did try, but lost a lot of crop as the high humidity and rainfall is challenging”, he says. “Arneis is the most resistant to mildew, but Barbera is very prone to botrytis – and Nebbiolo is sensitive to sunburn”.

Fallabrino (his winery pictured above) has also experimented with Cortese (used to make Gavi in Italy) and Freisa, but he says his hand irrigation did not work. His next plan is to try the rare white Piedmontese grape, Timorasso. He makes fresh vibrant wine styles he likes to drink himself, turning his hand to anything from natural orange wine (El Elephante Pisador), crisp whites, luscious reds to Tannat dessert wine mixing ancient Italian methods.

Fallabrino is one of the new generation of Uruguay winemakers proving the potential of this tiny country. Uruguay has under 6,000 hectares, so not much larger than St Emilion in Bordeaux.

After the intense summer heatwaves in Chile and Argentina, arriving in Uruguay is a relief. Even in high summer, temperatures nudge 28 degrees C with cool easterly breezes (compared to 38+ degrees C in Mendoza and Maipo). The landscape in the low coastal hills of Uruguay is lush and green with sea mists swirling in from the Atlantic; vines are often trained higher to ensure aeration around the canopies.

I headed further east along the Atlantic coast into Maldonado region with its cool dry climate, a dynamic region which is now Uruguay’s new wine frontier. Twenty years ago Maldonado had just 20 hectares, now there are 400+ hectares with two dozen producers as winemakers from Uruguay’s original heartland Canelones near Montevideo are now searching for cooler less humid spots.

I tasted at Japanese/Norwegian-owned Bodega Cerro del Toro at Piriapolis with its spectacular tasting room (see above) looking across to Pan de Azucar (sugarloaf mountain) – a magic spot for watching circling hawks and parrots – where they grow intensely etched Chardonnay and rich succulent Tannat.

Another fascinating visit there was at Bodega Bouza winery’s spectacular new restaurant Restaurante Las Espinas (above) on a dramatic hilltop just 3km from the Atlantic, where they grow Merlot and Tannat.

The real gem of Maldonado region is the pioneering winery Bodega Garzon. Argentine billionaire Alejandro Bulgheroni had a holiday home in remote wild countryside 100km north east of ritzy seaside resort Punta del Este, where he produced olive oil and bred cattle. In early 2000s he was inspired to grow vines, transforming this remote haven which had no roads or electricity and plenty of ostriches, deer, lizards and snakes – into a vast vineyard area.

From Garzon’s stylish modern winery you have a panoramic view of their 247 hectare vineyard, subdivided into 1000 plots with plenty of biodiversity with native forest and palm trees in between, to the ocean beyond 20km away. This is arguably the most impressive winery in South America, which has now put Maldonado – and Uruguay – on the map and set the trend for a flood of investment into this region.

Bulgheroni employed Tuscan consultant Alberto Antonini to set up the venture. Antonini assessed the oceanic climate, high rainfall (1200mm), low altitude 70-180m and granitic soils – finding a similarity with North West Spain’s Galicia region, so recommended that Albarino could work well. It has been successful, but the style of Albarino is lusher and less tensely mineral than in Galicia’s Rias Baixas.

The red grapes which work best here in eastern Uruguay are Pinot Noir and Tannat. Antonini’s style is to ensure grapes are not too overripe, not over macerated, kept fresh and with little oak influence, using large neutral barrels. Like many Uruguayan wines you should expect a gentler fresher more delicate style in comparison to the power and extract of other South American wines.

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