Let’s discover the vines & Grapes of the Douro Valley together.
ALVARINHO
It was one of the first Portuguese grape varieties to be bottled as a single variety. Its full-bodied, subtly fragrant white wines are easy to recognise, their complex but delicate aromas reminiscent of peach, lemon, passion fruit, lychee, orange zest, jasmin, orange blossom and lemon balm. The wines are delicious young, but they can also age well, often for ten years or more. Alvarinho grows mostly along the River Minho, right up in the north of the Vinho Verde region - the northern Vinho Verde sub-regions of Monção and Melgaço are its famous heartlands. Compared to other Vinho Verde, it makes richer wines, higher in alcohol. Alvarinho vines are vigorous, and care is needed to restrain their exuberant vegetation, yet grape yield is low, the bunches small, the grapes very pippy.
MALVASIA FINA
Malvasia Fina wines are subtle, not particularly intense, reasonably fresh and moderately complex. You may detect a hint of molasses, a suggestion of beeswax and nutmeg, and the wine may appear slightly smoky even if it has not been matured in wood. Generally used for blending, it also contributes to base blends for sparkling wines in cooler areas and/or when harvested early, for instance in Távora-Varosa and Lamego. In the vineyard, Malvasia Fina is particularly sensitive to oidium and moderately prone to rot, mildew and coulure, and yields are therefore extremely variable and inconsistent.
RABIGATO
In the past, it was mistakenly related to Rabo de Ovelha, a variety with which it bears no resemblance. Rabo de Ovelha also erroneously adopted the Rabigato designation in the Vinho Verde region, with which it has no similarity whatsoever. The wines offer lively and well balanced acidity, good alcoholic strengths, freshness and structure, characteristics that have raised it to the status of a promising variety in the Douro. It has medium-sized bunches and small yellowish green berries. It may, in the best locations, be vinified on its own, offering aromatic notes of acacia and orange blossom, vegetable sensations and, traditionally, a bold minerality. It is, however, in the mouth that justifies its reputation, with a biting and penetrating acidity, capable of rejuvenating the whites of the Upper Douro.
VIOSINHO
Traditionally, Viosinho has been an unpopular variety with growers because of its very low yields. It's only recently that winemakers have realised what a treasure it is, as a component both in port and in unfortified Douro white blends. It makes full-bodied but fresh, fragrant, well-balanced wines, performing best in hot, sunny climates where it is less prone to oidium and botrytis infection. Bunches and grapes are small and early-ripening.
Gouveio
It produces fresh, lively wines with good acidity, plenty of body, and fresh, citrus aromas, along with notes of peach and aniseed, and lovely balance. It ages well in bottle. For years it was known as Verdelho in the Douro, which led to confusion, as Gouveio has nothing to do with the Verdelho of Madeira. It ripens quite early, giving relatively high yields of medium-sized, tightly packed bunches of small, yellowish-green grapes that are prone to oidium infection and vulnerable if rain should fall around harvest time.
MOSCATEL DE SETÚBAL
Its distinctive aroma is really easy to recognise - fresh grapes, raisins, lemons, lychees, pears and lime flowers. It has good, fresh acidity. Elsewhere in the world, this type of Muscat is most commonly known as Muscat of Alexandria. It can make light, summery wines, dry or off-dry, or, more often, sweet, fortified wines, most famous of which is Moscatel de Setúbal with its notes of orange zest, honey, spices, iodine, orange blossom and acacia.
VERDELHO
From there it made its way to Australia, where it makes rich, aromatic dry whites. On Madeira it has traditionally been responsible for the tangy, off-dry style of (fortified) Madeira wine. The base wines have high acidity, and can be aromatic. Before the vine-munching phylloxera bug reached Madeira in the late 19th century, Verdelho vines accounted for two-thirds of Madeira's vineyards. Nowadays very little remains, growing mosly on high ground along the north coast of the island. Bunches of tiny yellowish-green grapes are small and compact
White Grapes
These grapes are not part of the douro portwines:
ANTÃO VAZ
Bical
FONTECAL
LOUREIRO
SÍRIA
TRAJADURA
TINTO Red Grapes
Touriga Franca
This is one of the structural pillars of red Douro blends, and also one of the five officially recommended grapes for port
It's the most widely planted grape in the Douro, currently accounting for around a fifth of total vineyard area, and it is now much planted right across the northern half of Portugal. The Touriga Franca makes richly-coloured, dense yet elegant wines with copious blackberry fruit and floral notes (roses, rock roses, wild flowers...) and firm but velvety tannins that contribute to the ageing potential of blends - it is often blended with Tinta Roriz and Touriga Nacional. Apart from the quality of its wines, it is popular in the vineyard for its resistance to pests and diseases and its reliably good crops of healthy grapes.
Trincadeira
Rich in colour, with good acidity and rarely an excess of alcohol, Trincadeira (as it's known in the Alentejo) or Tinta Amarela (if you are speaking to a Douro producer) makes wines of serious quality when ripe, but it does not always achieve ripeness.
Properly ripened, it has vibrant raspberry fruit tempered by herby, peppery, spicy, floral complexity, and it can age well. Under-ripe, it tastes herbaceous. It is a difficult vine to grow, producing exuberant amounts of foliage and needing constant trimming to prevent those vegetal flavours. Yields are generally high, but unreliable. It is very sensitive to rot and other vineyard diseases. For this reason it does better in hot, dry places, and is therefore particularly at home in the Alentejo and Ribatejo/Tejo areas: these are the regions where it really shines. But it is grown througout Portugal.
Rufete
You will rarely see this grape as a single variety.
It goes into blends in the Douro, Dão and the northern and central parts of the Beira Interior, over by the Spanish border, and is mostly found in old, mixed vineyards. It is a difficult grape, prone to mildew and oidium attacks, and a late ripener, sometimes failing to ripen fully before the rains set in late October. However, yields are good, and when it does manage to ripen fully, it makes full-bodied, fruity, aromatic wines than can age well in bottle.
Tinto Cão
In the Dão region, this grape is a relatively recent arrival, but in the Douro it dates back to the 18th century, and is now one of the five officially recommended grapes.
Although it has drawbacks economically, it makes fine wines. Its quality is evident in the perfect balance between tannins, acidity and sugar in the juice, in the firm but ripe quality of its tannins, and its rich colour. The wines are floral, dense and well structured, and can be very long-lived. It is frequently blended with Touriga Nacional and Aragonez, amongst others. The dense, thick skins of Tinto Cão grapes not only give rich tannins and colour, they also provide protection from mildew and rot. So what are its problems? It is late-ripening, and produces incredibly low yields, so low as to be economically unviable, and it is possibly therefore destined to die out.
Touriga Nacional
Few would dispute that the Touriga Nacional is Portugal's finest red grape variety, deserving a place right up at the top of the world league of grapes, along with the likes of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Nebbiolo.
Though Northern in origin, it has spread right across the country - you will find it down south in the Algarve and the Alentejo, out west in the Ribatejo/Tejo and Setúbal regions, successfully competing with the local Baga grape in Bairrada, and way out mid-Atlantic in the Azores. Touriga Nacional is a thick-skinned grape, and those skins are rich in colour and tannins, giving excellent structure and ageing capicity. But it also has wonderful, intense flavours, at the same time floral and fruity - ripe blackcurrants, raspberries - with complex hints also of herbs and liquorice. Yields are never high. The Dão and Douro regions both claim to be the origin of this fine grape, and the rest of the winemaking world is beginning to wake up to its quality.
Aragonez / Tinta Roriz
This is one of the rare grape varieties to be prized on both sides of the border. Tempranillo to the Spanish, the Portuguese call it by two different names depending on the region: Aragonez and Tinta Roriz (the latter name is used only in the Dão and Douro regions).
In recent years it has spread rapidly throughout the Dão, Ribatejo/Tejo and Lisboa regions. It can make rich, lively red wines that combine elegance and robustness, copious berry fruit and spicy flavour. It's an early variety (that's what "Tempranillo" means in Spanish). The vines are very vigorous and productive and adapt well to different climates and soils, altough it prefers hot, dry climates on sandy or clay-limestone soils. It tends to be blended with other varieties, typically Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca, and also with Trincadeira and Alicante Bouschet in the Alentejo.
Tinta Barroca
This is one of the most commonly-planted vines in the Douro, and one of the five officially recommended varieties for port.
You will rarely meet it as a single variety, but it forms part of most red Douro blends, contributing dark colour without too much tannin, thanks to its dark but thin skins, along with plummy, cherry fruit. Despite high yields, its grapes are rich in sugar and potential alcohol, and it is a reliable producer, with good resistance to pests and diseases. However, it copes badly in excessive heat and water stress, and grapes that suddenly become over-ripe can rapidly turn to raisins on the vine. It has been exported to South Africa where is is a component in port-style wines as well as making some varietal table wines
