Vino Ventures

Map courtesy of Uruguay Wine

I am in love with Uruguay! After just one fabulous visit to the wine regions surrounding the capital city of Montevideo (Canelones) and near Punta del Este (Maldonado) along the Atlantic coast, I am ready to return!!

Uruguay is a hidden gem — at least for wine lovers in the United States. I’m sorry to report that very little Uruguayan wine is exported to the U.S., mostly due to distribution challenges. Most of the wineries we visited export with relative ease to other South American countries, Japan, London, and some parts of the EU. 

Winter (July) in this part of South America is chilly, but not cold compared to winters in Midwestern U.S. Even so, locals were bundled up in hats, gloves, and heavy winter coats. We visitors might have looked a bit silly in our light jackets, just loving a reprieve from hot/humid summer days.

Uruguay offers great wine (Tannat everywhere), terrific food (lots of Italian), beautiful landscape, incredible sunsets, and wonderful people who easily forgave my choppy Spanish while proclaiming that their English is terrible (not!). 

Don’t judge me! 🙂 We visited 14 wineries in six days. Yes, it was a marathon, but well worth it to experience the diversity of options and growth of the industry in Uruguay. For those of us in the United States, I found that wine.com carries some wines of Uruguay, indicated in the list below with **. In addition, you can buy Pizzorno wines from surwines.com.

• Bodegas Carrau
• Artesana Winery **
• Bodega Colorado Chico (Proyecto Nakkal)
• Antigua Bodega Stagnari
• H. Stagnari
• Bodega Los Nadies
• Pizzorno
• Spinoglio
• Bodega Bouza **
• BraccoBosca
• Alto de la Ballena
• Viña Edén
• Garzón **

We had planned to visit a 15th winery — Bodega Oceánica José Ignacio — but the winery was closed to tourism for the winter.

Hasta luego, until next time!