Winemaker Notes
Serve at room temperature with light meat dishes, such as pork, or flavorful, hard cheeses from cow or sheep’s milk.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Touriga Nacional was aged for 16 months in French oak (38% new). It comes in at 14% alcohol. Francisco Spratley Ferreira, of the family that owns Vallado, said that this was one of his favorites ever. Tightly wound and rather tight in general, this is lighter in style on the mid-palate but the combination of aromatics, intensity and mid-palate finesse make it very appealing—if not irresistible. The fresh, bright conclusion makes this enlivening, too. It may be less tannic than the Tinta Roriz this issue, but it is far fresher and more graceful. It won't be the wine that necessarily hits you over the head. It will be the one you'll want to drink. This has star potential. I'm bullish for the moment. We'll see how it looks down the road with some time in bottle. Not yet bottled, I tasted the final blend in tank.
Range: 93-95 -
Wine & Spirits
Francisco Olazabal and Francisco Ferreira ferment this in stainless steel, then rack it after malolactic to age for 16 months in French oak barriques. They’ve captured the delicate side of touriga nacional in this 2015, its formidable power checked by cool notes of orange zest and esteva, the rockrose that grows on Douro hillsides. Juicy and vibrant, with schist tannins lasting in the wake of the fruit, this is a wine to enjoy young, with duck braised with prunes, or to cellar for five years.
Gaining great popularity for its bold but beautifully aromatic dry red wines, Touriga Nacional is the noblest variety in Port wine. Most likely originating from the Dão region, today it grows throughout the Douro Valley as well. Somm Secret—As many as 80 grape varieties can be used to make Port wine, each contributing something unique to the resulting blend. Touriga Nacional adds great color, tannins and aromatics.
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.