Food & Wine

Two dishes explain more about Maldonado's wines than any tasting note ever could. One is the chivito, Uruguay's unofficial national dish: an overloaded sandwich of thinly sliced beef, ham, bacon, egg, cheese, and olives. The other is the asado, the open fire on which beef and sausages cook for hours.

A lighter-styled Tannat suits chivito better than a heavyweight one. Fat from the bacon and melted cheese already soften a firm tannin, and a wine that's too heavy would simply overpower the sandwich. Young Tannat vintages, barely a year in barrel, hit the right note here.

With asado, the opposite is true. Uruguay eats more beef per capita than nearly any other country on earth. At the same time, it grows more Tannat than any other wine-producing country, a pairing that's no coincidence. Smoky, fatty grilled meat needs tannin and acidity in full force, or the wine ends up looking thin and powerless next to the embers.

Along the coast, in José Ignacio or Piriápolis, everything revolves around fresh fish and seafood, often simply grilled and served with lemon. That's exactly where Albariño shows its strength: its salty minerality next to fish from the same sea feels almost like an extension of the plate rather than an addition to it.

In the end, a simple picture of Maldonado emerges. Inland, at the grill, the heavy red wine from granite soil rules. On the coast, with fish, the glass of Albariño belongs, with a view of the very water the meal just came from.