2021 Craft vs Science Touriga Nacional

This wine is part of our future proofing project. Touriga Nacional is heat and drought tolerant as well as late ripening. My father-in-law being savvy and having seen the climate change over the years, decided to have a blind tasting of alternate varieties that we thought would do well in the changing Barossa climate. This variety was a stand out and our favourite of the tasting and we have since then planted a few rows. A wonderful variety with origins in Portugal. This variety is fantastic when made into a table red. It is very complex and appealing in flavour and definitely one of my favourite red varieties.One of our most popular wines; fear not everyone - its back in stock.Vineyard:This wine was made 100% from grapes from our family's vineyard in Bethany, Barossa Valley. Touriga Nacional is a very popular variety from Portugal, though not seen a lot here in Australia. It is one of the major varieties used to make Port in Portugal. However it also makes a fabulous table wine, with very similar flavours you see in Shiraz. 100% Barossa Valley vineyards.Winemaking :This Touriga Nacional was made from grapes grown in our family's vineyard in Bethany, Barossa Valley. Hand-picked, the grapes were then crushed into 3 vessels for fermentation. I removed one head from a brand-new puncheon (oak barrel) from my favourite cooper and used this as an open fermenter, along with two stainless steel open fermenters. I used three different yeast to boost varietal aroma and add complexity. After pressing the wine off skins, it was aged in a brand-new puncheon and an old oak barrique for 8 months and was then blended resulting in 60% new oak.