Uruguay Wine Regions - View Wines

Uruguay Wine Regions Located on the Atlantic side of the continent on a latitude of 30º and 35º south, Uruguay is firmly in the Southern Hemisphere wine producing band shared by Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The cool weather, rolling hills and maritime climate of the south coast is home to the majority of the 9,000 hectares now under cultivation.

Uruguay is sunny, but much wetter than Argentina, to its south. Whereas Argentina's wine regions are cooled by altitude, Uruguay's are cooled by the cold south Atlantic currents. Evenings are cool, slowing the ripening of the grapes.

Key wine growing regions are:

  • CANELONES
  • MONTEVIDEO
  • COLONIA
  • SAN JOSÉ
  • MALDONADO
  • SALTA
  • RIVERA

Canelones is the main wine region, 15 miles north of Montevideo on the country's southern coast with the River Plate Estuary. 60% of Uruguay's wine is grown here.

The generally loamy soils of the other southern coastal areas of Montevideo and San José and Maldonado account for the large part of the remaining wine production.

Colonia is in the south western corner of the country across the River Plate from Buenos Aires.

Riviera in the far north shares a boundary with Brazil's Campanha area and as with Salta, the hotter, drier climate is where Tannat was first planted and flourished.