Touriga Nacional: Portugal’s Finest Red Grape

Touriga Nacional is widely held to be Portugal’s finest red grape. It is the most prized of the grapes that go into Port, and it almost vanished before winemakers realized what they had.

Small-berried, low-yielding and deeply coloured, Touriga Nacional gives some of the most powerful and perfumed reds in the world.¹ It is often called Portugal’s answer to Cabernet Sauvignon. (For the wider story, see our history of Portuguese wine.)

A grape of the north

Touriga Nacional is long associated with the Dão, and later the Douro, of northern Portugal; records reach back to at least the late 18th century, and grape scientists place its origin in northern Portugal, though its exact parentage is still unknown.¹ By the 19th century it was one of the important grapes of the Dão. In the Douro it became one of the key grapes of Port, and today it is increasingly bottled on its own as a dry red.²

Almost lost, then rediscovered

For a grape this good, Touriga Nacional nearly disappeared. It is very low-yielding and hard to grow, and through the 1960s to the 1980s Portuguese growers pulled it out in favour of easier, more productive varieties.² The turn came in the 1990s, when a new generation recognised its quality and began replanting it, both for Port and for a wave of serious Douro and Dão table wines. It is now Portugal’s flagship red.

What it tastes like

Touriga Nacional is dense and full-bodied, with firm, fine-grained tannins that give the best wines the structure to age for twenty to thirty years or more.² Young, it is unmistakably floral, with scents of violet, rose and orange blossom over dark fruit. In the warm Douro it makes opulent, concentrated wines; in the cooler, higher Dão it turns lighter and more perfumed, with brighter acidity.²

Read more

• The history of wine in Portugal
• Port: the Douro’s fortified wine

References

1. Touriga Nacional as Portugal’s finest red, its long history in the Douro and Dão, and its uncertain parentage: The Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th ed., “Touriga Nacional”; J. Robinson, J. Harding & J. Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes (2012); Wines of Portugal (ViniPortugal). ↩
2. Low yields and the 1960s–80s decline; the 1990s revival; role in Port and dry reds; the Douro-versus-Dão expression; concentration, tannin, floral character and ageing: The Oxford Companion to Wine; Wine Grapes; jancisrobinson.com; Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP). Note: by planted area Touriga Franca contributes more of the Port blend by volume; Touriga Nacional is the most prized. ↩

Want to read more? Try these books

The Oxford Companion to Wine Jancis Robinson (ed.)

The Story of Wine Hugh Johnson

Ancient Wine Patrick E. McGovern

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