Touriga Nacional is a red grape variety from Portugal, long valued as a major element of high-end Port blends but now showing its qualities in other warm climate regions around the world.
Touriga Nacional creates dark-coloured wines with a powerful concentration of black fruit, wild herbs and liquorice accompanied by mouth-coating tannins. Young expressions can show a floral, violet aroma. Touriga Nacional’s rich character and firm structure lend themselves to age-worthy wines, although the variety is often blended with softer, suppler grapes to create a more approachable style.
Touriga Nacional may be more famous in the Douro, but its origins are believed to lie further south in Portugal’s Dão region. Here the variety retains an important and more widespread presence.
Touriga Nacional is still found primarily in its native Portugal, especially the Dão and Douro. Its proven quality here has caught the eye of other ambitious producers in warm climate regions so that Touriga Nacional now has a small presence in California, South Africa and particularly Australia.
Douro & Dão, Portugal
In 2019 Touriga Nacional was one of seven grape varieties to be approved for use in Bordeaux blends. Authorities there believe the grape is well suited to help Bordeaux producers maintain quality in a warming climate. For the moment, however, plantings remain nascent.
- Quinta dos Roques, Dão, Portugal
- Taylor’s, Douro, Portugal (Port)
- Quinta do Crasto, Douro, Portugal
- SC Pannell, McLaren Vale, Australia
This grape variety is also known by the name of:
Bical, Bical Tinto, Preto Mortagua, Turiga, Tinta Mortagua, Toiriga, Touriga, Touriga Femea, Touriga Fina, Tourigao, Tourigo, Tourigo Antigo, Tourigo Do Dao, Touringa, Touriva, Tourigo Nacional
