Grape Guide
Tinta Negra
RedTinta Negra is a dark-skinned Iberian variety that supplies most of the grapes behind Madeira's fortified wines, and it is known in the Canary Islands as Negramoll. DNA profiling shows it to be the old Andalusian grape Mollar, and it yields everything from light, soft table reds to dry, medium and sweet Madeira.
Key Characteristics
- Identical by DNA profiling to Andalusian Mollar, which also explains the South American plantings sold under that name
- Mid budding and mid ripening, with big, loose bunches
- Thick-skinned berries that can taste herbaceous if picked underripe
- Sensitive to abrupt temperature changes
- Mutates readily: the multicoloured Mollar Cano form and a pink-berried Negramoll Rosada are recorded
Typical Flavors
Major Regions
Madeira (Portugal) · Tacoronte-Acentejo DO (Tenerife) · La Palma DO (Canary Islands) · Other Canary Islands DOs · Extremadura (as Mollar) · Azores (as Saborinho) · Peru (as Mollar)
Also Known As
Negramoll (Canary Islands) · Tinta Negra Mole (Madeira) · Negra Mole (Algarve · Canary Islands) · Mollar (Andalucia · South America) · Mollar Cano (Spanish national register) · Molar (mainland Portugal) · Saborinho (Azores) · Tinta de Madeira · Mulata (Lanzarote) · Mollar de Cadiz (Andalucia) · Negra Criolla (Bolivia)
Overview
Tinta Negra is the name used on Madeira, where it has been the official spelling since 2000 and where the vine fills most of the island's vineyards. In the Canary Islands the same grape is called Negramoll, and in mainland Andalucia and the Americas it is Mollar. The berries are thick-skinned and the bunches large and loose, and both the table wines and the fortified wines made from it tend toward a soft, open-textured style rather than a tannic or austere one. On Madeira it is the workhorse behind most bottlings, and it is the only variety permitted in every sweetness category from dry to sweet. In the Canaries it makes light, aromatic reds meant for early drinking, with the most committed varietal wines coming from La Palma. Outside the Atlantic islands it plays a minor role: a little survives in Extremadura, and in Peru it is mainly distilled into pisco.
Origins & History
For a long time Negramoll was assumed to be native to the Canary Islands, and Tinta Negra Mole to Madeira. DNA work done in the 2000s overturned both ideas: the vines on the two archipelagos are Mollar, an old Andalusian variety that probably originated in the province of Cadiz. The oldest record is a Catalan text from 1787 that mentions a calabash of mollar wine. Even so, the range of forms found in southern Spain points to a much longer history there, including a multicoloured mutation in which a single vine can bear berries of four shades: black, red, pink and white. The name is usually traced to the Latin mollis, soft, and is thought to refer to the texture of the berries. The grape most likely travelled from Andalucia to the Canaries and Madeira by the eighteenth century, and by the nineteenth it was widespread on both island groups. It reached the Americas far earlier: a council record from Santiago, Chile, dated 1614, refers to mollar wine being sold, and Mollar turns up often in early accounts from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. DNA comparison has confirmed that South American Mollar and the Andalusian original are one and the same. Its own parentage has never been established. It is a parent of Peru's Quebranta, and a cross in which it served as either pollen or seed parent, recorded as Tinta de Madeira, produced Egiodola. France's Mollard resembles it in spelling but has no relation to it.
Viticultural Characteristics
Tinta Negra buds in mid season and ripens in mid season, which suits the long, mild growing cycles of the Atlantic islands. Bunches are large and loose, and the berries have thick skins and a tendency toward herbaceous flavours when the crop is not fully ripe. The vine is sensitive to sudden shifts in temperature, a real consideration on islands where altitude and ocean exposure can change conditions within a few kilometres. Yields are generous when left unchecked, and sugars can climb quickly in warm years, so crop level and picking date largely decide whether the wine reads as fresh or heavy. The grape proved robust enough to be replanted widely on Madeira once phylloxera had devastated the island's vineyards in the late 1800s, when growers favoured it over the more delicate traditional white varieties. Its tendency to mutate has produced the multicoloured Mollar Cano and a pink form, Negramoll Rosada, reported on Tenerife.
Wine Styles & Characteristics
On Madeira, Tinta Negra is used for the large majority of wine, including the entry-level three-year-old blends that are typically heated in tank, as well as older wines aged in cask in warm lofts. It can be made dry, medium dry, medium sweet or sweet, unlike the four traditional white varieties, each of which is tied to one style. Since 2015 its name has been permitted on the front label, and a varietal wine must contain at least 85 percent of the stated grape. Producers such as Barbeito and Henriques & Henriques now bottle aged and vintage-dated Tinta Negra Madeiras, some with long age statements. In the Canary Islands, Negramoll makes light, soft, aromatic red wines meant to be drunk young. Mollar in Extremadura gives higher-alcohol reds with low acidity, and in Peru the fruit is mostly distilled.