Grape Guide
Duras
RedDuras is a black-skinned variety of the Tarn valley in southwest France, and one of the principal red grapes of the Gaillac appellation. It gives deeply coloured, firmly structured, peppery reds that are usually blended with Fer Servadou and Syrah, and it is rarely planted beyond Gaillac and its immediate neighbours.
Key characteristics
- Black-skinned variety native to the Tarn and Ariège in southwest France
- Vigorous in yield and best kept on short spur pruning; buds early and ripens in the middle of the season
- Prone to eutypa dieback, mites, phomopsis and powdery mildew
- Roughly 900 ha in France around 2010, almost all in the Tarn
- Permitted for Gaillac Primeur, which allows only Gamay and Duras
Typical flavors
Major regions
Gaillac · Côtes de Millau · Vins d'Estaing · Tarn · Aveyron
Also known as
Durade · Duras Rouge (Tarn) · Durazé (Ariège)
Duras is a red grape of southwest France whose home is the upper Tarn valley around Gaillac, with a smaller presence in the neighbouring Aveyron. Total plantings are modest, below 1,000 hectares (about 920 ha in 2009), and nearly all of them sit in the Tarn département. Outside this corner of Occitanie it is almost unknown, and it has no link to the Côtes de Duras appellation near Bordeaux, which is named after a town.
In the glass Duras is dark, firm and peppery, with alcohol that often runs high and a grippy tannic structure. Gaillac growers lean on it for structure, pairing it with Fer Servadou, which adds spice and freshness, and Syrah, which adds fruit and polish. Gaillac's red rules are built around blends, so a varietal bottling such as Domaine de Causse-Marines' Rasdu is sold as Vin de France.
Duras is an old variety of the Midi-Pyrénées, long cultivated in the Tarn and in Ariège. Its earliest secure record is an 1842 listing as Duras Noir in the Gaillac vineyard. A story that places it in a lease signed at Lavaur in 1484 rests on a document that cannot be reliably verified. The name comes from the French dur, "hard", and refers to the very hard wood of the vine. Suggestions that it descends from the Roman grape Duracina are speculation at best; the two names may simply share a root.
Its parentage is not settled. DNA profiling around 2000 pointed to Tressot, a rare northern Burgundian variety, being the offspring of Duras crossed with Petit Verdot from Bordeaux. A later analysis, reported to rest on only about twenty markers, reverses the direction and proposes that Duras is the offspring of Tressot and Savagnin. Until a larger marker panel is published, Duras is best described as closely related to Tressot, with the direction of the relationship in doubt.
For most of its history Duras stayed within a small radius of the Tarn, Ariège and Aveyron. Its local names include Durade, Duras Rouge in the Tarn and Durazé in Ariège. It has not travelled; plantings elsewhere are negligible.
Duras is fertile, and short pruning on spurs is the best way to hold yields in check. It buds early and ripens in mid-season, so it suits the warm Tarn valley climate, which has both Atlantic and Mediterranean influences. The vine is prone to eutypa dieback, mites, phomopsis and powdery mildew, which makes canopy management, an open ventilated canopy and careful pruning-wound hygiene important. Its wood is notably hard, the trait behind the variety's name. Vineyards in Gaillac are planted on terraces above the Tarn and on limestone plateaus, and the appellation has actively encouraged local varieties such as Duras over international ones. French plantings stood at roughly 900 ha around 2010, almost all in the Tarn département.
Duras makes deeply coloured red wines with firm structure, a peppery edge and often generous alcohol. Typical descriptors are black pepper, dark berry fruit and spice, with a dry, grippy tannic frame. In Gaillac it is one of the principal red varieties, blended with Fer Servadou (Braucol), Syrah and Prunelard; the proportions vary by estate, and Duras supplies the backbone in the blend. Gaillac Primeur, the early-release red, may be made only from Gamay and Duras. In the Aveyron it also plays a secondary role in the red and rosé wines of Vins d'Estaing and Côtes de Millau. Varietal Duras exists, but under the Vin de France label, as in the cuvée made by Domaine de Causse-Marines. Rosé is a minor outlet.
Where it grows
Gaillac (Tarn)
The centre of production and the source of nearly all French plantings. Duras is one of the principal red and rosé varieties of the appellation, alongside Fer Servadou, Prunelard and Syrah.
Côtes de Millau (Aveyron)
A minor blending component in red and rosé wines, where Gamay and Syrah form the core of the blend.
Vins d'Estaing (Aveyron)
A secondary variety in the red and rosé wines of this small appellation north of Rodez.
Vin de France
The label used for varietal Duras, because the Gaillac appellation is organised around blended reds. Domaine de Causse-Marines in Gaillac, run on biodynamic lines, bottles one as Rasdu.