Back again in Gaúcha Land: Fausto de Pizzato Tannat 2007, Serra Gaúcha

Back again in South America. A region of the wine world I tend to neglect a bit. I definitely should drink more from there. This time I had a Tannat from the very south of Brazil. Maybe one of the most interessting wine countries in the coming decades. Today's Tannat was produced by the Pizzato family winery. A well established family in the local wine growing business. However, till 1998 they never produced and commercialized larger amounts of wine in their own name. Plinio Pizzato made one step forward and started the production of Merlot and Tannat based wines. Today, Pizzato is a medium large family winery with a fair reputation for classic style light wines without over extraction and high volumes of alcohol.

The Fausto Tannat (Fausto is the premium line of the winery) was a classical light body Tannat with a very restrained fruit character.

Its colour appeared almost transparent for a Tannat based wine. However, the colour itself was garnet red with a few purple reflexes. An astoundingly juvenile appeal. The nose showed fine liquorice, slight vanilla, dark earth, a bit black pepper, high voltage chocolate, hints of black currant and an overall soft and warm, but straight style. The taste seemed gently juicy and soft, but not in an exaggerated way. Besides that it showed nice and not all too complicated flavours of dusty dark cherries, some green pepper, mild oak, hints of spicy greenery and black tobacco (sometimes I was under the impression to drink a lighter Cabernet Sauvignon based wine!?!). The fruit character wasn't as fruitful as the back label indicated. Thank heavens for that! I most definitely prefer a more restrained and almost tart fruit style. Especially in case of stronger red’sters. The tannin was still present and lusty, but well balanced and beneficial for the overall structure. I guess I really enjoyed this one. It was nicely accessible, had a decent length, wasn’t so complicated (good for simpletons like me) and very reasonable priced! Somthing for a party largly populated with "fruit-bomb-haters-but-not-too-dry-and-fruitless-ones-either"! Enjoyed it!