Touriga Nacional comes from Portugal, which boasts a huge array of grape varieties that are in most cases barely seen anywhere else. It makes brilliant, fascinating, deeply coloured, world-class, spicy, ageworthy wine.
Touriga Nacional is most famously found in Porto, and is grown all over the Douro (the port region). It is universally recognised as being the best port grape. However, since it has become difficult for the producers in the Douro to sell all their production of port, they are making more and more table wines, with the Touriga Nacional being widely used. Quite right too. The Douro is definitely the region to watch currently for the finest Touriga Nacional table wines. It does have a major drawback: it produces extremely low yields, in the Douro each vine produces on average around 300 g of grapes when other varieties will produce 2 kg. The vine is vigorous and healthy (not susceptible to fungal diseases), and needs to be pruned very hard, it produces tiny, jet-black-coloured grapes.
Touriga Nacional has a thick skin and small clusters of berries which help to contribute to the colorful and tannic wine it creates. In addition to the flowers, tannins and extract the Touriga Nacional brings to the Port table, the grape is an integral part of the blends of still red wine found in both the Douro and Dao valleys, producing wines that are heavy in both red fruits and structure. Yields are low, but recent clonal selection has improved production.
While some of the best and most expensive wines of the Douro and the Dao contain high percentages of Touriga Nacional, usually even the every day reds have at least a small portion of this varietal.
In theses days Touriga Nacional became popular grape variety in almost every wine region of Portugal and gives very good and high quality red wine. Touriga Nacional grapes gives the amount of extract in the wines. The grapes can produce intense, very aromatic wines with high tannin content.
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