The house grapes · red

Touriga Nacional: the grape Portugal shows off

Touriga Nacional is the red grape Portugal shows off. In the glass, it comes out dark, perfumed (flowers and ripe fruit at the same time) and full-bodied, with a firm tannin that grips your mouth. If a Portuguese red has ever left a mark on you, there's a good chance it was in there.

248 house labels have Touriga Nacional56 are Touriga Nacional onlyfrom Brazil and Portugal

Where it comes from

That it's Portuguese, nobody disputes: VIVC, the international catalog of grape varieties, records its origin in Portugal, with no known father or mother. The fight is over the region. The Dão, in the center of the country, presents itself as its cradle, and one of the grape's old names is precisely Tourigo do Dão. The Douro, farther north, lays claim too. Wines of Portugal, which promotes Portuguese wine abroad, sums it up like this: the two regions both claim to be its birthplace.

What's known for sure: it already dominated the Dão and carried weight in the Douro before phylloxera, the pest that wiped out vineyards across Europe. Today it's spread across the whole country, from Alentejo to the Algarve, by way of Lisboa, Tejo, Setúbal, Bairrada and even the Azores.

What it's like in the glass

The skin is thick and full of pigment, which is why the wine comes out dark, almost purple when young. The smell is its calling card: strong, it rises from the glass before you get close. Think flowers, raspberry jam, ripe black fruit, a hint of herbs and licorice.

In the mouth, it's full-bodied: the sip fills your mouth. The tannin, that squeeze on the gums, is firm. The acidity runs from medium to high, which keeps the wine lively, and the alcohol tends to be generous. If you think a good red is a red with presence, it's for you. If you prefer something light, you'll find it intense, and that's fine too.

A vine leaf, a bunch of red grapes and a glass of Touriga Nacional wine. — fig. 1From bunch to glass: the pigment-packed skin makes the wine almost purple when young.

What it pairs with

A red this big calls for hearty food. On the grill: picanha (rump cap), cupim (hump), beef ribs, lamb. In the pot: oxtail with watercress, pot roast, kid goat. A Touriga from the Vale do São Francisco with carne de sol (sun-dried beef) and queijo coalho (grilling cheese) is a match made in its own backyard.

Aged cheese, like canastra or parmesan, holds up well too. But it's just a suggestion: if you like it with calabresa sausage pizza on a Tuesday, go ahead, and how nice that you found out what you like.

Where it shines today

In Portugal, mainly in the Douro and the Dão. In the Douro, according to the IVDP (Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto), it was the third most planted grape in 2023, with 4,432 hectares. There, it goes into Port wine and dry reds, almost always blended with Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz. In the Dão, it plays at home.

In Brazil, it's on the official grape list of the Indication of Provenance (IP) Vale do São Francisco, in the semi-arid backlands of Pernambuco and Bahia, registered by INPI in 2022. Embrapa names Touriga Nacional among the reds that represent the region, where year-round heat and irrigation allow more than one harvest a year in the same vineyard.

Its other names

VIVC lists more than twenty nicknames for it. Some tell its story: Tourigo do Dão, Tinta Mortágua, Touriga Fina, Tourigo Antigo. On the label, though, you'll see plain Touriga Nacional.

Varietal or blend?

Both. On its own, it makes a varietal with a strong personality. In a blend, it leads the team: ADVID, the Douro viticulture association, calls it the lead variety in blends. It also becomes rosé, sparkling wine and, of course, Port.

A curious fact: for a long time it was a low-yielding grape, with small bunches, and the traditional vines suffered from flowers that never turned into grapes. Clonal selection (good plants chosen and multiplied) made the new vineyards much more reliable, according to ADVID.