Tannat Is the Ultimate Big Red Wine for Steak
Move over, Malbec, this little-known varietal from Uruguay demands a place at the table.
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At celebrity chef Francis Mallmann’s personal retreat in Uruguay, sausages and sweetbreads were sizzling outdoors on his rustic parrilla, a grill over an open wood fire. I heaped my plate. Later, when he passed the second course, a platter of short ribs and thick rib-eye steaks dripping with juice, I couldn’t resist even more meat.
The table was littered with open bottles, but the best wine with all that grass-fed beef was a rich, spicy Uruguayan red made from the Tannat grape by a new winery, Bodega Garzón. I savored the combo as I tried to pick out constellations from a star-studded sky while the sky darkened over green hills with granite outcroppings.