Midalidare’s Grape Varieties: Tannat – Wines & winemaking

Tannat makes dry, full-bodied wine with high tannins and medium to high acidity.

• On the nose - Tannat delivers rich aromas of black currant and red plum, with subtle notes of licorice, smoked meats, and black cardamom. Depending on the climate where it grows, Tannat’s aromas range from ripe and fruity to herbal and savory.
• On the palate - Tannat wines typically taste dry with a full-body, highly structured and astringent tannins, and moderately high acidity. These robust traits make Tannat a great choice for aging mid to long term, as wines soften over time. Most common taste is black cherry, currant, licorice, cardamom, espresso, smoke, and baking spices.

Different Tannat styles

Uruguay: Smoother tannins, riper black fruit, delicate violet notes, elegant-yet-powerful wines.

Tannat from Uruguay is made in a more laid-back style than what is found in its homeland of France. With a focus on making wines that are ready to drink in a much earlier time frame, these wines don’t necessarily need time in the cellar to be delicious.

Often blended with Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and sometimes even Pinot Noir, Uruguayan Tannat is a great place to start your Tannat journey. Many producers here are using less and less oak to preserve the purity of the fruit flavors.

Madiran, France: Wines that need time to age, brooding blackberry and plum, grippy tannins, and unmistakable power.

Madiran, a small appellation in the south-west of France, makes big wines based on Tannat. They have full throttle tannins and searing acidity. For this reason, it’s often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc to ease astringency. Still, French law requires a minimum of 60% Tannat on wines labeled “Madiran AOC.”

Mogilovo, Bulgaria: Midalidare’s style of Tannat winemaking is French oriented, aiming to express the terroir and varietal characteristics. Wines are barrel fermented and aged in French oak barrels (barrique) from Troncais region with fine pores.

Winemaking

In tasting notes Uruguay Tannat is described as having smoother tannins and more floral aromas than the French one. This difference is partially due to clonal selection. The original grapevine clones brought from France by Basque immigrants produced wines that were likely very astringent and grippy, just like in Madiran. However, today in Uruguay, producers have selected different clones which produce smoother tannin wines with more elegance.

Tannat’s its thick skins make it:

• Relatively easy to grow in a variety of climate conditions (especially dry),
• Less likely to be attacked by vineyard pests, fungus, and mold,
• Less susceptible to cold temperature variations and the dreaded frost.

Looking for velvety Tannat?

Here’s what to look for in the winemaker’s notes to find smooth, velvetyTannat wines:

• Oak barrel aging – while oak introduces wood tannins, it also allows a steady oxygen entrance to the wine, which helps the wine taste smoother,
• Micro-oxygenation (aka “microOX” or “microbullage” in French) – is the process of introducing teeny, tiny amounts of oxygen during the winemaking process to soften the overbearing structure and make the wines more approachable at a younger age,
• Extended aging – one of the perks of aging a wine that is built to age (i.e. carries high tannins and high acidity) is that over time, the wine’s tannins will break down and soften on their own. The combination of tannins and acidity requires Tannat to age in oak anywhere from six months to several years.

Tannat has some of the highest tannins found in wine, which can often make the wines very “grippy.” Hence many winemakers choose to blend Tannat to soften it and to help provide balance. Common blending partners include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel.

Tannat is also used to produce full bodied rosés that show more of the red fruit flavors, such as red currant, red cherry and raspberry.