80 Port anD the Douro
rosé for export markets. Outside the Douro it is now officially known as Marufo and it just
scrapes in to the top ten of the most planted grapes in Portugal with 3,630 hectares.
touriga nacional
Of all the grape varieties in the Douro, Touriga Nacional has the most noble pedigree
and is certainly the most frequently mentioned by Port shippers. It comes as something
of a revelation that Touriga Nacional registers in sixth place in the list of the Douro’s most
planted red grape varieties and that it accounts for a mere 3 per cent of the region’s vine
stock. Nonetheless, it is climbing the regional league table and is up from eighth place in
the last edition of this book (2003).
It is something of an affront to growers in the Douro to suggest that Touriga Nacional
may have originated in Dão, where, prior to phylloxera, it was pre-eminent in the region’s
vineyards. It is sometimes known here as Preto Mortágua and there is a village in the heart
of Dão between Santa Comba Dão and Tondela named Tourigo. Mortágua is also a town
nearby, reinforcing the claim that it originated in the Dão region.
Touriga Nacional has been lauded since the late eighteenth century when it was known
as Touriga Fina. In the 1870s Villa Maior described it the progenitor of some of the
best wines in Portugal. It was noted at the time for its inherent astringency and various
authorities recommended blending Touriga Nacional with Alvarelhão or Bastardo, both
of which produce much paler, lighter styles of wine. Touriga Nacional lost ground in the
wake of phylloxera, not because of its quality (that is indisputable) but due to its inherently
low yields. Added to this, the lack of suitable rootstock increased its susceptibility to poor
fruit set. With yields as low as 0.5 to 0.8 kilos per vine, Touriga Nacional was described
to me by one farmer as ‘a winemaker’s grape rather than a grower’s grape’. Such was its fall
from grace that by the end of the 1970s it was almost extinct and accounted for just 0.1
per cent of Douro vineyards.
It was only in 1969 that the CEVD recognised Touriga Nacional as one of the best
varieties among their experimental plots of vines, and just over a decade later José
António Rosas and João Nicolau de Almeida considered it to be the best grape in their
varietal selection (see above, page 66). A program of clonal selection which began in
1978 increased yields to a more commercially acceptable 1 to 1.5 kilos per vine. Touriga
Nacional only returned en masse during the PDRITM project in the 1980s but then
only to the Cima Corgo and Douro Superior, where in some prominent Port quintas it
now accounts for 20 to 30 per cent of the vineyard. Cockburn’s were early supporters of
Touriga Nacional and claimed to have the most in their vineyards.
Touriga Nacional continues to suffer from excess vigour and is extremely susceptible to
cool, damp weather during flowing. Yields are consequently very variable. For example,
in three successive years, a five-hectare plot of Touriga Nacional at Quinta do Crasto in
the Douro produced 40 pipes (220 hectolitres), 25 pipes (138 hectolitres) and then just
six pipes (33 hectolitres). It is not particularly good in extremes and is probably less suited
to the higher reaches of the Douro Superior than the Cima Corgo. Provided the grapes
are picked at the right moment (Touriga Nacional easily over-ripens), its small, thick-