From: Douro, Portugal
Blend: 50% Touriga Franca, 30% Touriga Nacional, 20% Tinta Roriz
Tasting Notes: Ruby red in color, with violet undertones in the glass. The nose is dominated by a smattering of cool fruits: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and black plum skin. All this gorgeous fruit blends beautifully with a notable baking spice and spicy tones from barrel aging (as well as from the varietals themselves). Together, all of these qualities combine in the glass equal a beautifully balanced wine - acidity plus soft and ripe tannins all tethered together on a stony, mineral core.
Pairing: Go with any meats similar to the traditional Douro cuisine: smoked ham, spicy sausage, and wild boar. Additionally, the fruit, spice, and mineral nature of the wine (along with silky fine tannins) make a fantastic pairing for dishes that incorporate greens and legumes; namely lentils and kale. With that inspiration in mind, we stumbled across Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe for Lalla Mussa Dal, adapted by Priya Krishna & had to share!
About this wine, generally. Tons de Duorum is inspired by the bright colors that result from the reflection of the sun on the Douro River ("tons" means color nuance), creating different tones in the vineyards. This wine expresses the terroir of the fantastic Douro region, the result of a unique interaction between nature and human effort. Made from a blend of Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz sourced from the Castelo Melhor and Costodio vineyards.
The region. Douro is a DOC (Denominação de Origem Controlada) in the northeastern province of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. The DOC produces both fortified and unfortified wines. The fortified wines from this region are released as DOC Port.
Douro can be divided into three distinct sub-zones. Baixa Corgo to the west has the highest density of plantings, the output of which mostly goes into bulk wines. The mountainous Cima Corgo to the east has the highest total vineyard acreage and the best reputation for quality. The area is so mountainous and the soil so hard and schistous that vineyards are planted on terraces carved out centuries ago by hand or, later, with dynamite. Douro Superior, the farthest east abutting the Spanish border, is the largest, most arid, and most sparsely planted region in Douro. This is the site of most new vineyards.
