Short Sips

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The New York Sun

Uruguay is the dark horse of fine wine-producing countries. In a bid to raise its profile, a dozen Uruguyan wineries recently galloped into town to show off their wines at the Puck Building. Unlike Chile and Argentina, South America’s wine-making giants, little Uruguay is not influenced by the mighty Andes. It’s mainly flat and humid, in fact. Still, lying as it does between latitudes 30 and 35 degrees south, the country inhabits an ideally cool wine-growing zone.


If Uruguay only offered the usual mainstream wines, such as chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, and syrah, there would be scant reason to take notice. But this little country has a secret wine weapon. It’s called tannat, a red grape whose original and only other stronghold is in Madiran in southwestern France. There, it makes a wine that is burly and foursquare. Gum-searing tannins give this grape its name. For good reason, French tannat is a peripheral wine. It’s just too damn tough.


But not in Uruguay. Somehow, tannat is tamed, if not quite gentled. It’s grown mainly in vineyards along the Rio Plate in the south of the country, as well as in the highlands in the north, bordering Brazil. First planted in the 19th century, tannat (locally called harriague) accounts for a quarter of Uruguay’s annual production of 11 million cases. It always has oodles of body and structure, plumped up with muted fruit flavors. It’s a wine that comes into its own with the arrival of barbecue season. It will stand up to the char of any meat. Try the Bodegas Carrau Tannat de Reserve 2002 ($9.99 at Cortlandt Wines). Carrau’s “Amat” 2000 Tannat Reserve bottling is a deeper, lusher wine, finishing with a lively touch of mint ($24.99 at finewine.com).


WATERFORD UPDATED “When your mom got married, Lismore would have been her pattern,” a salesman at Waterford’s Madison Avenue showroom told me the other day. He pointed to a display of cut-glass crystal goblets that are a Waterford mainstay. But if mom is an up-to-date wine buff, her Lismore is collecting dust in the cabinet when company comes. It’s replaced at the table with thin-walled tulip and balloon-contoured stemware, quite likely Austrian-made by Riedel. Now Waterford has made its move on Riedel with its new 10-glass Connoisseur Gold Collection. You might even mistake these graceful glasses for Riedel, were it not for the distinctive gold band encircling the stem base of each glass.


Waterford called in two wine experts – the author of “The Wine Bible,” Karen MacNeil, and the wine director of the Italian wine hub Vino on East 27th Street, Charles Scicolone – to advise on the design the new collection. These are finely finished glasses, with a smooth bonding between hand-blown bowl and stem, and a reassuringly solid base that resists tipovers. For special occasion red burgundy, my choice is the flared tulip-shaped pinot noir glass ($149 a pair).


BEDROCK BORDEAUX Henri Lurton, a member of an extended family whose imprint is everywhere in Bordeaux, was in town last week to pour six vintages of his Chateau Brane-Cantenac at the uptown bistro Orsay. Loftily classified in 1855 as second growth, this Margaux underperformed until Mr. Lurton’s arrival in 1992. Upgraded viticulture, including numerous hole borings to determine which vineyard parcels are best for particular varieties, seems to have been a key to improving the wines. Brane-Cantenac is less delicate than typical Margaux, with perfume and tastes that are in the gamey rather than floral mode. These are wines that need time to show their best. Best for drinking right now was the 1999 Brane-Cantenac ($39.99 at 67 Wines), a model of ripe yet firm claret. It partnered perfectly with Orsay’s roasted poussin “basquaise.” A word of warning: The 2000 Brane-Cantenac had shut down, and it’s far from the only example of better Bordeaux from this superb vintage to do so. In place of the deep, even luscious fruitiness that this vintage showed upon release, Brane-Cantenac had turned hard and hollow. When it emerges from this off-putting stage, it should provide the texture, depth, and complexity for which Bordeaux remains the standard.


WEEKEND WILDNESS Are you a Bordeaux fan who has a blank calendar for next weekend? Then hop over the pond for “Le Week-End des Grand Amateurs” hosted by the Union of Grands Crus of Bordeaux. On Saturday, 100 chateaus will be pouring multiple vintages of their wines, including the vaunted 2003, on the magnificently restored Quai des Chartrons. That evening, attendees are invited to dinner at the chateaus. On Sunday, expect more on-site tours and tasting. Details and registration (in French) at www.ugcb.net/commerce/wga.


BIG BAM WINES If the poise and reticence of classic Bordeaux is not your thing, drop in at Sherry-Lehmann next Wednesday afternoon (3-6 p.m.) for a free tasting of a trio of wines from Australia’s prestigious Clarendon Hills winery. Its Ukrainian-born proprietor-winemaker, Roman Bratasiuk, goes for turbo-charged flavor. To be tasted: Brookman Hills Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 ($63.95), Blewitt Springs Vineyard Old Vines Granache 2003 ($59.95), and Liandra Vineyard Syrah 2003 ($69.95).


The New York Sun

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