Port anD the Douro 77as Tinta da França and then Tinta Francesa despite having nothing whatsoever to do
with any French grape variety. Most producers in the Douro still refer to it as Touriga
Francesa.
Touriga Franca is one of the Douro’s few consensual varieties, liked as much by
growers as winemakers. In the vineyard it is a hardy variety that likes the heat. It is very
disease-resistant and flourishes on warmer south-facing slopes where it is favoured by
growers for its relatively consistent yields. Like many Douro varieties, it suffers from
excess vigour and produces grapes with low sugar levels if yields are too high or the local
climatic conditions are less than ideal. At high altitudes sugar levels struggle to reach
11 degrees Baumé (a measure of grape sugar concentration which roughly corresponds
with potential alcohol). When it reaches the winery, Touriga Franca requires plenty of
work to extract both colour and tannin from the relatively thick skins. Young Touriga
Franca wine is more expressive than Touriga Nacional but it doesn’t match Nacional for
sheer weight, depth and longevity. Although by no means the most highly prized of Port
grapes (that accolade is still reserved for Touriga Nacional), it is nevertheless respected
by winemakers for its aromatic qualities, lending a floral character to the blend. Touriga
Franca is valued as a good all-round grape lending structure and up-front fruit to both
Port and Douro wines, but suffers from fluctuations in quality. It performed brilliantly in
2009 and 2011 with some producers now considering that it could be a more interesting
variety than Nacional. However, in 2010 it failed to ripen. One grower summed up
Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca as the ‘Cabernet and Merlot of the Douro’. António
Agrellos, winemaker for Quinta do Noval, describes Touriga Franca as the ‘flor do Douro’
(flower of the Douro).
Apart from in the tasting room, Touriga Franca is rarely seen as a varietal but it forms an
important part of the blend in nearly every Port and an increasing number of unfortified
Douro wines. The grape variety known simply as ‘Touriga’ in Australia is almost certainly
Touriga Franca.
tinta Roriz
One of the few Port varieties with a pedigree outside Portugal, Tinta Roriz has gathered
a bewildering number of names on its travels round the Iberian Peninsula. Known in
Spain as Tempranillo, it probably originated in Valdepeñas and reached the Douro via
the Alentejo in central-southern Portugal where it continues to acknowledge its Spanish
heritage under the title Aragonez. Although Roriz has been in the Douro since the early
nineteenth century (presumably having been planted at Quinta do Roriz), it is not listed
by Villa Maior as an important pre-phylloxera variety. Cincinnato da Costa, writing
towards the end of the nineteenth century, identifies it as belonging to the high vineyards
of Trás-os-Montes (Alfandega de Fé, Macedo de Cavaleiros, Moncorvo and Vila Flor)
rather than the Douro valley itself. Greatly helped by the replanting programme of the
1980s, Tinta Roriz is still in second place behind Touriga Franca, accounting for around
12 per cent of the Douro’s vineyards, having fallen in popularity in recent years. It has
been undergoing a programme of clonal selection since 1982.