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The vineyard |
Tired of the city life, Andy Hirt left Buenos Aires in 1991 and purchased a vineyard in Uruguay.
More than a centuary ago an Italian winegrower family built the Casona house which was then expanded over many years over and over again. The Casona was situated in the midst of the vineyard. In the early days there were no mono culture vineyards planted; instead different grapes like the Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Gris, Moscatelle etc. grew together on the same plot.
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From then on Andy called this property Gondwana . First he nurtured the old vines. But soon afterwards his curiosity grew from day to day and he read any books he could lay his hands on concerning the production and wine making.
He then decided to plant his own 300 vines all of the Tannat type, a very old grape originating from the Basque country in France. This grape is very suited to our climat and soil and today represents the national grape of Uruguay.
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One of our international guest appreciated the Gondwana wine so much and wished to import it into Europe. Therefore, Andy needed to apply for a liquor licence from the State of Uruguay. Due to the lengthy bureaucracy it took more than a year to deal with all the formalities. But in 2004 he finally received the license Bodega Nr. 1108. This licence was granted to him as the smallest official Bodega of Uruguay with a production of only 2500 bottles per year.
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The French call these small bodegas „Vin de Garage“ or Boutique wines which are of such excellent quality and present great competition to the larger wine cellars in the country. Argentina therefore has already banned the production of these wines. Licences are currently only issued to large Bodegas to protect their businesses.
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The wine cellar of Gondwana is a wholly ecological wine production all
done by hand. The wine is neither pressed nor filtered . It’s called a
„drip wine“ which is a carefully controlled process of wine making.
The alcohol level measures 14,5%.
At present the Tannat wine is produced for our own consumption only and for our friends. |
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