Douro Grapes Around the World

[Jan-Tore Egge]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before...

It occurred to me the other day, as we had some Allesverloren Tinta Barocca 2006 with our dinner, that Douro grapes don't seem to be too much in evidence outside Portugal. Unlike some other grapes, which seem to travel the world. I myself tend to seek out grapes from what I perceive to be their homes, but I'm still curious: What other producers outside Portugal make wines from these grapes?

(Allesverloren also makes a Touriga Nacional, BTW.)

[Roy Hersh]

When I was uploading some photos to PORTraits earlier this evening, I was thinking of putting in some of my Allesverloren shots when I spent a day with the owner and his family and some of my SA friends doing a complete vertical of their Vintage Ports. Danie was a great host, and he held a fabulous Braai with some exotic game meats. They go out of their way to use root stock from Portugal that happened to find its way into SA in a suitcase.

I was asked to read my notes on all the wines (wish he had told me that before hand!) and I gave my advice too, re: improving the aromatics, the only weakness in the lineup. I am a big fan.

There are producers in CA, WA, VA and MO that I know of that are using real Portuguese rootstock.

[David S. Eley]

Hi Jan,

This is brief, but I have had a very interesting conversation about this very topic with several Douro winemakers. The most concise opinion came from Miguel Roquette of Quinta do Crasto. He opined that he had not seen any great expressions of Touriga Nacional overseas...yet, and pondered whether it might only achieve full potential on native soil.

Though Touriga N. is not exclusive to the Douro, I do sense it finds one of its finest and most varied expressions on the schistous soils of this region. This is a truly 'great grape' and could easily offer stiff competition to Cabernet Sauvignon internationally...if it had another fifty years to develop a following and mount a serious vinous challenge!

It is a grape that offers such variety and works well within complex wines, as well as pure fruit driven expressions for early and easy drinking. Being one of the most widely travelled of Portuguese wine professionals, Miguel Roquette may well be correct, his opinion is well worth listening to as he travels internationally almost as much as Dirk Niepoort - the Phileas Fogg of Portuguese fine wine.

Perhaps an adventurous vigneron in New Zealand or Oregon might think about trying T.N. - I have no idea what might be in the pipeline with the increasing band of imaginative flying winemakers.

[Frederick Blais]

Port variety grapes are mainly used in Australia, South Africa and California as they try to mimic port

But if you want to be successful with those grapes as for table wine, you can't let them grow in a way you would let grow Cabernet. Touriga for example, can really get too ripe and give you over the top wines full of alcohol. Douro, can give you that freshness it needs to be successful, but again, many in Portugal are missing that point so don't expect everyone to catch this outside Portugal.

[Elyas Beria]

I had a really impressive Brazilian wine recently from a producer called Miolo. It was the Miolo Quinta do Seival made from Touriga Nacional, Alfrocheiro and Tinta Roriz. Very nicely done and quite a surprise from Brazil.

The producer's website is http://www.miolo.com.br and there is a link on the top right to view the site in English. I searched on http://www.wine-searcher.com for it and the only cities there were results for were NYC and Woburn, MA. But look out for it. If you know a shop that tends to carry wine from more unusual regions it might be worth asking them to order it. They won't be disappointed.

[Glenn E.]

Tinta Roriz is also known as Tempranillo, which is used extensively in Spanish wines. It was thought to be related to (perhaps even descended directly from) Pinot Noir, but that theory has been falling out of favor of late due to genetic research.

[Elyas Beria]

True. Tempranillo probably has as many pseudonyms as any grape out there. Some of the more common ones are Cencibel, Tinto del País, Tinto de Toro, Tinto Fino, and Ull de Llebre, among tons of others. And I bet that many growers in Portugal would argue that their Tinta Roriz tastes way different than Spain's Tempranillo. Which of course it does exhibit different nuances due to terroir, etc, but it is the same grape.

[Frederick Blais]

True. Tempranillo probably has as many pseudonyms as any grape out there. Some of the more common ones are Cencibel, Tinto del País, Tinto de Toro, Tinto Fino, and Ull de Llebre, among tons of others. And I bet that many growers in Portugal would argue that their Tinta Roriz tastes way different than Spain's Tempranillo. Which of course it does exhibit different nuances due to terroir, etc, but it is the same grape.

Same Variety but not the same clone. Two different clone of Touriga Nacional on the same vineyard will taste different. A clone is in fact a cultivar : An artificial selection done by man to select the best genes of a specific living over the course of time trough its reproduction. For example : If you want grapes with big berries, you'll plant the seeds from those year after year until your vineyards gets 100% vines with big grapes. It takes often quite a time to achieve this, as it is not 100% certain that a big berry seeds will grow into a new vine that will produce only big berries.

[Jan-Tore Egge]

Well, I would expect to find a bit of Tempranillo here and there -- different clones (and under different names, perhaps, though "Tempranillo" itself seems to be the most widespread outside of Spain and Portugal). But I'm still left with the feeling that there are only modest amounts of the other Douro grapes, the ones that we associate primarily with the Douro. Maybe it's a good thing; I don't know.