2024 Marselan, Bodega Garzón Reserve

• Style: Dry, bold, structured Uruguayan red, 13% ABV
• Taste: Deep dark fruit, firm frame, warm Grenache generosity
• Food: Grilled lamb, charred steak, BBQ, stews, aged Manchego
• Occasion: Weeknight; Sunday Lunch
• Serve: Drinks well now; will keep several years

In the Glass — Tasting Notes

Pour this and the colour tells you most of what you need to know. Marselan was bred in France in 1961 by crossing Cabernet Sauvignon with Grenache, and its small berries give wines with real depth of pigment and a firm frame. In Garzón's 2024 Reserve that translates into a bold, dry, structured red that carries the dark-fruited seriousness of the Cabernet side and the warmth of the Grenache side, yet sits at a measured 13% rather than straining for power. Wine Spectator awarded it 89 points, and for us it is one of the most rewarding examples of this variety we have found anywhere in the southern hemisphere.

The Winery — Bodega Garzón

Bodega Garzón is a family-owned estate on Uruguay's Atlantic coast that effectively created viticulture in Maldonado little more than a decade ago and has since become the benchmark name for the country's premium wines, picking up Wine Enthusiast's New World Winery of the Year in November 2018. Its vineyards are a patchwork of 1,150 small plots of roughly 0.2 hectares, each matched to a variety by soil and microclimate. The site matters here: these vines lie around a thousand feet up on soils of weathered volcanic rock, with cool Atlantic air moving through constantly — exactly the conditions that keep a thick-skinned, structured grape fresh rather than jammy. The winery itself was designed with sustainability at its core, built into natural terraces and run on a gravity system with modern technology to protect quality and save energy at every stage; it was the first outside North America to pursue LEED environmental certification. The estate has not supplied vegan or vegetarian certification for this cuvée, so please ask us if that is important to you.

At Your Table — Food Pairing & Serving

This is built for the table: grilled or roasted lamb, a well-charred steak, burgers straight off the barbecue, slow stews and braises, a proper Sunday roast, earthy mushroom dishes, or a plate of aged Manchego. It is just as happy on a weeknight as at Sunday lunch, drinks well now, and we would happily keep a few bottles for the next several years. If the grape intrigues you, our full range of Marselan is worth exploring, as are the other wines we stock from Maldonado; and if this bottle whets your appetite, our wider selection from Uruguay sits alongside it and is well worth a browse.