A shorter day focussed around Montevideo took us 40 minutes north to Bodegas Carrau for our first visit.
This is very long established bodega. The original Carrau family emigrated from Catalonia and the winery is one of the oldest in Uruguay dating back to 1887. Set in parkland on a main road, it is not the prettiest estate but functional, full of old historic huge concrete vats and a reputation for some unusual grapes.
Giovanni hosted our visit with great aplomb. We tasted fresh Albariño grapes, then saw them being destalked and pressed and the press in action.
In their historic tasting room we tasted through a selection of their Grande Reservas, with a 2020 Petit Manseng, various Tannat blends and culminating in a Sousão 2004. Incredibly rare and well preserved.
This was an usual and high quality start to our day.
From Carrau, it was a twenty minute drive to another historic bodega – Castillo Viejo. Dating back to 1927, this bodega has a prettier park to sit in – which we duly did!
Alejandra, the winemaker, talked us through a bit of history and then we took a wander round more historic concrete vats and wooden barrels. Again, we saw winemaking in operation at first hand and made good efforts at tripping over pipes and vats and even had a go at putting a label on a bottle. Alejandra was a wonderful host and really brought the bodega to life.
Downstairs, in their amazing barrel cellar we combined lunch with wine tasting and tasted Merlot rosé, pure Cabernet Franc, Tannat Tempranillo and their top Tannat – El Preciado.
Another contrasting day and another perspective on Uruguay wines.