For The Love Of Port

Eric Ifune wrote:Everyone talks about Touriga Nacional, but it makes up only a little percentage wise.

Which makes you wonder how much is actually used???


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Andy Velebil wrote:

Eric Ifune wrote:Everyone talks about Touriga Nacional, but it makes up only a little percentage wise.

Which makes you wonder how much is actually used???

You mean in vintage ports specifically?
Ports in general?
Or in Douro wine production including DOC?

Via Bjarne Mouridsen we know that

2016 Burmester is a mix of 50 % touriga nacional and 50 % touriga franca from Quinta do Arnozelo
2016 Kopke is a mix of 60 % vinhas velhas from Quinta Sao Luiz and 40 % touriga nacional
2016 Barros is a mix of 40 % touriga franca, 30 % tinta roriz, 20 % touriga nacional and 10 % tinta barroca
2016 Cálem is a mix of 30 % touriga nacional, 30 % touriga franca, 30 % tinta roriz and 10 % sousão

That seems to be quite a bit...

Eric Ifune wrote:Everyone talks about Touriga Nacional, but it makes up only a little percentage wise.

Rumor has it that Graham's Stone Terraces is almost 100% Touriga Nacional. Sure, there are only 400-odd cases of GST made in just the right years, but when it isn't made all of that TN goes into their other Ports.

I wonder if TN is more heavily used in higher-quality Ports, thus accounting for the overall low percentage?

Everyone talks about Touriga Nacional, but it makes up only a little percentage wise

I don't have the numbers, but do know that an awful lot of TN got planted, after coming close to extinction 40 years ago.

TN provided fantastic juice, but the yield was lousy. Along came the biologists, who came up with a TN that cropped well - so everyone started planting it.

However, over the last few years, the producers have been having rather cold feet about this vine - the juice from the new version seems to fall short of expectations, and its not hard to find winemakers who will tell you it was over planted.

As for percentages, it would not entirely surprise me if the amount that goes into VP is quite small now, but there's still a heck of a lot of TN vines growing..

I was talking about the percentage of vines in the old field blend vineyards. The source of some of the best wines, which we all love so much.