Tinta Barroca
The style profiled here is a dry, full-bodied red Tinta Barroca wine: soft, sweet-fruited, a Port blender. Typical alcohol is 13 to 14.5%. Serve it at 16 to 18 °C.
Also called Tinta Grossa.
The grape
Tinta Barroca is one of the five grapes officially recommended for Port, alongside Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinto Cão, and it is the one grown for reliability rather than for glory. It crops generously, it ripens early, and it accumulates sugar fast, all of which suit a wine whose fermentation is stopped early with spirit.
Its weakness is heat, and the Douro is a hot place. The skins are thin and the vine suffers badly in a heatwave, so growers plant it on the cooler, higher and north facing slopes where the tougher varieties are not needed. Picked from a hot site it gives a soft, jammy, low acid wine that tires quickly.
It contributes colour, body and an early sweetness to a Port blend rather than aroma or structure. It is also grown in South Africa, where it arrived early and is sometimes bottled as a dry red, and where it goes into the country's small but genuine Cape Port style. Varietal bottlings from the Douro exist and are unusual.
BuyingYou will meet it inside a Port rather than on a label. If you want to taste it alone, the South African dry reds are easier to find than a Douro varietal.
Style profile
Our rating of a representative wine- Sweetness
- Bone dry
- Body
- Full
- Tannin
- Medium
- Acidity
- Medium
Sweetness and structure vary with the producer, region and winemaking. These ratings describe the style above; check the label for the bottle in front of you.
Food pairings
Explore its wine regions
Countries that build on it
Similar grapes
Sources
- Facts: Wikipedia, Tinta Barroca (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikidata Q861834 (CC0).
- Variety record: Vitis International Variety Catalogue, VIVC 12462.
- Style profile, pairings and serving figures are our own assessment.