Grape Guide
Vinhão
RedVinhão is the deepest-coloured red grape of north-west Portugal and the backbone of red Vinho Verde, where its very high acidity and dark berry fruit make assertive, rustic wines. Under the name Sousão it also grows in the Douro, where it has long been used to add colour and freshness to port blends.
Key characteristics
- Black, heavily bloomed berries with slightly coloured flesh
- Late budbreak, mid to late ripening, medium to strong vigour
- Musts very high in acidity, about 7 to 9 g/L as tartaric
- Sensitive to drought, sunburn, esca and mites
- Native to the Minho; called Sousão in the Douro and Sousón in Galicia
Typical flavors
Major regions
Vinho Verde (Amarante, Basto) · Douro · Galicia (Rías Baixas, Ribeiro, Valdeorras, Monterrei) · California · Australia · South Africa
Also known as
Sousão (Douro) · Souzão · Sousón (Galicia) · Espadeiro Basto (Arcos de Valdevez) · Espadeiro Preto (Monção) · Espadeiro da Tinta (Valença) · Negrão (Minho) · Tinta Nacional (Amarante) · Tinto de Parada (Melgaço) · Sousão de Correr (Minho)
Vinhão is a black-skinned Portuguese variety whose berries hold so much pigment that colour spreads into the slightly stained flesh when the fruit is crushed. Its wines are among the darkest in Portugal: near-opaque, with a purple to garnet rim, high acidity, firm tannins and flavours of sour cherry, blackcurrant and wild berries with a savoury, earthy edge. It is the principal red grape of the Vinho Verde region, where it does best on cool, fresh soils in inland subregions such as Amarante and Basto.
Beyond the Minho the vine appears mainly under its Douro and Galician names, Sousão and Sousón. There it is a colouring and acidifying component in port and table wine blends, with small plantings in Spain, California, Australia and South Africa, and a descendant in Israel, the cross called Argaman. Vinho Verde growers have shown renewed interest in it as a counterweight to the white varieties that dominate the region.
Vinhão is thought to be native to the Minho, in Portugal's north-west, which nineteenth-century Portuguese ampelographers named as its birthplace and where it remains the foremost red grape. It is believed to have arrived in the Douro around 1790. There growers took it up under the name Sousão to deepen the colour of port, at a time when dyeing wine with elderberries was banned. Local names follow its spread: Espadeiro Basto, Espadeiro Preto, Negrão, Tinta Nacional and Tinto de Parada in the north, and Sousón across the border in Galicia.
Its identity has long been a puzzle. DNA profiling of vines held in the Vinho Verde and Douro collections showed that Minho Vinhão and Douro Sousão are a single genotype, and since 2012 Portuguese regulations have listed Sousão as an official synonym of Vinhão. Earlier national rules treated the two as separate, and the national collection now registers the name Sezão for the vine once called Sousão in the Vinho Verde area, so any name should be checked against the actual vine concerned.
Its parentage is not established. Microsatellite data published in 2011 suggested a probable parent-offspring link with Amaral (called Azal Tinto in Galicia, and also known as Caíño Bravo), and later allele comparisons fit a close relationship, yet no pedigree has been confirmed. In 1972 Israel's Volcani Institute crossed Sousão with Carignan, which gave Argaman.
Vinhão has medium to strong vigour and an upright habit, with late budbreak and mid to late ripening that suit the cool, damp, Atlantic-influenced Minho. Bunches are medium-sized, funnel-shaped and of medium compactness; berries are medium, round, blue-black and heavily bloomed, with slightly coloured, juicy flesh. Yields are moderate to generous, and the variety copes well with mechanical harvesting. It shows some tolerance of downy and powdery mildew but is sensitive to drought, sunburn, esca and mites, and prefers fresh soils. Musts are very high in acidity, around 7 to 9 g/L as tartaric acid in published ampelographic data, with modest potential alcohol, roughly 10 to 11.5 percent.
Across the Vinho Verde region, Vinhão supplies most of the red wine: inky in colour, high in acidity, firm in tannin and moderate in alcohol, with cherry and forest fruit character. It is commonly blended with local reds such as Borraçal and Amaral, although several estates bottle it on its own, among them Aphros, Quinta da Palmirinha, Quinta de Gomariz and Quinta de Carapeços, while Quinta de Linhares makes a rosé from it. Within the Douro, Sousão adds colour and acidity to port and to field blends, and Quinta do Vallado bottles a varietal table wine. In California and South Africa it is used chiefly for port-style fortified wines, and Australian producers use it for port styles and for dry blends of Portuguese varieties.
Where it grows
Vinho Verde (Portugal)
This is the variety's heartland, strongest in the Amarante and Basto subregions, and it is allowed throughout the region's red wines. It is the denomination's foremost red grape, and published figures for its plantings across Portugal vary widely between sources.
Douro (Portugal)
Called Sousão here, it grows in old mixed vineyards and in newer plantings, and port houses value it for colour and acidity. It is also among the vines in the ungrafted Nacional plot at Quinta do Noval, although that vineyard owes its character to its age and site rather than to the variety.
Galicia (Spain)
Grown as Sousón, with roughly 570 ha recorded in 2008, nearly all of it in Galicia, and authorised in the Rías Baixas, Ribeiro, Valdeorras and Monterrei appellations. Most of it goes into blends, but Quinta da Muradella and Coto Redondo make varietal wines.
California and South Africa
California had about 25 ha in 2009 and South Africa about 38 ha, planted mainly for fortified wines in the Portuguese style.
Australia and Israel
Sousão goes into blends at Campbells of Rutherglen, at Mazza in Geographe, and at the McLaren Vale estate of d'Arenberg. In Israel, Argaman, a cross of Sousão and Carignan, passes the deep colour on as a separate variety.