Toriga Nacional ( port. Touriga Nacional ) - a technical grape variety ; one of the most famous varieties of Portugal and the best red varieties recommended for the production of port . It gives the wine a good structure and body, an intense fruity aroma with floral notes, rich color with violet hues, high acidity and alcohol content .
| Toriga National | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Touriga nacional |
| Also referred to as | Bical Tinto, Mortágua, Mortágua Preto, Touriga, Touriga Fina, Tourigao, Tourigo Antigo |
| Color | black1 |
| The main regions |  Portugal : Douro , Dhau |
| Notable wines | Port wine |
| Diseases and Pests | black spotting , shedding of flowers, peeling |
| Wine Characteristics | |
| General | deep dark color; high tannins, acidity and alcohol content; aromas of violets, red and black berries |
| With age | spices, vegetable notes |
| Vivc | 12594 |
“Toriga” without specification in some regions (for example, in Australia ) can mainly mean precisely Torigu Nacional, while in others ( USA ) it most often means the variety Toriga Franca [1] .
Content
- 1 History and distribution
- 2 Botanical Description
- 3 Agricultural properties
- 4 In winemaking
- 5 notes
- 6 References
History and distribution
The name of the variety was supposedly derived from the mire of Torigu ( port. Tourigo ). The variety received flattering reviews and was grown in fairly large volumes in the 19th century, before the phylloxera crisis. So, according to some reports, in the Dau region, the proportion of vineyard area under this variety reached 90% [2] . By the middle of the 20th century, the popularity of Torigi Nacional among winegrowers (to a lesser extent - among winemakers ) significantly decreased due to its low productivity and a tendency to shedding, which appeared after vaccination of the variety on phylloxera rootstock. In Douro, the variety almost disappeared, but in Dau it continued to remain quite significant [3] .
In 1979, deliberate attempts to revive the variety began, which turned out to be very successful; clone selection returned Torigu Nacional to the heights of Portuguese winemaking . In the late 1990s, the plantings of Torigi Nacional in Portugal amounted to 2,760 hectares . The low yield of the variety leads to the fact that its share in the total volume of wines is small, but it plays an important role in blending the best ports.
To a limited extent, Toriga Nacional is also grown outside of Portugal - in Australia , the USA , Argentina and other countries.
Botanical Description
The crown of the young shoot is open, with raspberry fringing and spider pubescence of medium density [4] .
Young leaves are green with a copper tint, with a spiderly pubescence of medium density on the lower surface. Ripe leaves are small, five-lobed, flat, medium green; lower surface with mixed pubescence of medium density. Petiole notch open, V-shaped; side recesses are U-shaped.
Bisexual flowers .
The clusters are small, cylindrical, medium density.
The berries are small and medium, round or round-oval, black with a bluish waxy coating, with an average thickness of the skin and soft flesh.
Agricultural properties
Early flowering ; ripening period is average. The variety is characterized by low productivity (~ 150 g - 1.5 kg per vine, depending on the clone and conditions), due to the tendency to shed flowers and peas.
Although the variety adapts well to various soils , from the point of view of the quality of the berries, cultivation on very fertile soil is undesirable. Sensitive to hydrostress , which can lose leaves.
Resistance to diseases ( mildew , oidium , rot rot ) and pests ( cicadas , moths ) is high, but the variety is somewhat susceptible to black spotting .
In winemaking
The small berries of Torigi Nacional have a large ratio of the mass of the skin to the mass of the pulp, which leads to a high extraction of the skin components in the wine. The variety gives wines of a rich, deep red color with a purple tint, with a medium to high alcohol content, with high acidity and high tannins. The aroma is intense, fruity, red and black berries ( raspberries , blackberries ) with floral notes (violet, lavender). The potential for aging wine is high.
In addition to port and similar wines from other countries, Toriga Nacional is widely used for the production of non-fortified wines. The variety is often included in blends; according to some oenologists , blending varieties with others is preferable, as it produces more outstanding, complex wines, but in a rather large volume single-varietal wines based on Torigi Nacional are also produced.
Notes
- ↑ Jancis Robinson. Red wine grapes . jancisrobinson.com. Date of treatment July 9, 2013. Archived on September 3, 2013.
- ↑ Touriga Nacional Wine . Wine-Searcher.com. Date of treatment July 10, 2013. Archived on September 3, 2013.
- ↑ Bill Nesto. Touriga Nacional and Arinto (inaccessible link) . Massachusetts Beverage Business. Date of treatment July 10, 2013. Archived June 13, 2011.
- ↑ Touriga Nacional T (port.) (Link unavailable) . Instituto Nacional de Recursos Biológicos. Archived on August 18, 2012.
Links
- Touriga-Nacional (PT ) . Vine to Wine Circle. Date of treatment July 12, 2013. Archived on September 3, 2013.