Tannat

Tannic to a fault — Madiran's grape, Uruguay's pride.

Tannat is among the most tannic red grapes in commercial use, named for its dense polyphenolic structure. Madiran in southwest France is the historic home; Uruguay adopted it as a national grape in the 1870s and now grows more Tannat than France. Modern winemaking uses micro-oxygenation (developed for Madiran by Patrick Ducournau in the 1990s) to soften the aggressive tannin without long aging. Tannat is occasionally cited for unusually high resveratrol content, though dietary effects are speculative.