“As the only Zinfandel producer in Uruguay, Artesana’s 2017 Tannat-Merlot-Zinfandel Reserva is a unique blend. Made by our award-wining winemaker Analia Lazaneo, it is a balanced, complex and elegant wine with aromas and flavors of black fruit, blueberry jam and subtle floral notes reminiscent of violet on a background of cedar and toasted oak notes. It is a wine true to the vintage, region and the people who make it.”
– Lanyon & Blake Heinemann, Owners
WINEMAKER NOTES
Artesana wines are made with minimal intervention, allowing the character of the fruit to be expressed. Gentle handling techniques are practiced throughout the process. Lots from the various Tannat, Merlot, and Zinfandel blocks were fermented separately in small stainless steel tanks. 10-day cool maceration regimes provided excellent aroma and flavor extraction. Barrel aging was done in new and one to four year old French and American oak for 16 months to carefully accentuate the flavors of the wines. Custom blended and bottled without fining or filtration.
FLAVORS
TASTE PROFILE
ABOUT ARTESANA WINERY
Artesana is a small production, single vineyard estate winery located in the acclaimed Canelones winegrowing region of Uruguay. Made with the highest quality estate-grown fruit, Artesana’s iconic wines showcase Uruguay’s distinctive terroir and its signature varietal Tannat.
Uruguay produces dynamic and award-winning wines of outstanding quality. Differing from Argentina and Chile, Uruguay is a country of small- scale, family-owned wineries with a European winemaking tradition. The coastal Atlantic climate is often compared to Bordeaux’s, producing wines with well-balanced levels of alcohol and acidity. Tannat, brought from France in the 1870s, produces rich, full-bodied red wines with dark fruit and spice aromas and flavors.
Artesana was developed in 2007 by American Blake Heinemann who recognized the unique character of Uruguay’s Tannat wines and thought others would be interested in discovering them as well. “Uruguay is an extraordinary country. When I first tasted the Tannat wines from the Canelones region I was struck by their richness. Uruguay is being recognized as a fine wine producer and deservedly so. There are excellent wines being made in Uruguay and Tannat is a very distinctive grape. It has an exotic spicy character that can be big and bold, yet elegant and complex.”