624 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 Oct., 1916. 



He descidbes two other sub-varieties under the names of Tourigao or 

 Tourigo Macho (male) and Touriga Foufeira, and suggests that they 

 should be rooted up and replaced by layering. He advises against 

 grafting them, " because they possess the singular property of not 

 being capable of correction by way of grafting; even if grafted with 

 the most excellent Touriga, they always remain the same; the nature 

 of the stock or trunk triumphing over that of the scion."* 



Villa Maior (1849-77) speaks very highly of Touriga. He refers 

 to the little esteem in which it was held by Rebello da Fonseca — 



"but what did he mean by Touriga? There seems no doubt that it was really 

 Touriga lie was writing of but in this ease it is necessary to state that his opinion 

 is contrary to the very positive results of long experience in the higher portion 

 of the Alto Douro, that same region which I am describing, where the variety 

 called Touriga is recognised to possess incontestable merits; so much so, that 

 the rehabilitation of the viticultural reputation of several vineyards is attributed 

 to it." He adds that this remark only applies " to the one primitively called 

 Touriga which is one of the choicest and best we know." 



He is emphatic as to the importance of selecting the choicest varieties in order 

 to insure quality in tlie wine. " It is not alone on the wine making that 

 the quality of the wine depends, but mainly on the richness of the grapes 

 produced by special varieties of vines grown under the inflvience of a favorable 

 climate and of a soil appropriate to its particular nature." Notwithstanding the 

 opinion of Pliny and those writers who liold that the soil plays the leading part, 

 he points out " that it is powerless to enable a choice wine to be extracted from a 

 coarse or even from a mediocre grape. The vine-grower is powerless to change 

 his soil or climate, but, on the contrary, he has free choice of the varieties best 

 suited to the special conditions of these." 



He quotes the well-known opinion of Dr. Guyot concerning the predominant 

 part played by variety, concluding with the following curious passage, of special 

 interest to Australians : — " I can myself testify to the truth of this as I had 

 occasion to state in my report concerning the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Speaking 

 of the wines of Southern Australia, the wines of New Sovith Wales and those of 

 Victoria, made exclusively from good varieties imported from Burgundy and the 

 Medoc, showed the distinctive character of the wines of these last-named regions." 



Writing in 1873 the same writer states " Touriga is one of the varieties most 

 highly esteemed in the Douro vineyards, mainly in the region between Tua and 

 Pinhao, where, together with Tinta Francisca and Mourisco Tinto, it serves to 

 produce the most generous wine." 



He states that ripe Touriga grapes produce on an average 55.7 per cent, of 

 must of a gravity of 1.115 (15° Beaunie) containing 24 per cent, of sugar and 

 .34 per cent, of acids (as sulphuric). 



As further proof of the high quality of Touriga he states that "the vineyards 

 of Soutello, in the Pesqueira district^ were formerly planted with mixed varieties 

 of low grade, furnishing mediocre wines. A well-known proprietor, Sr. Bento 

 de Queries, knowing the precious qualities of Touriga, caused this variety to 

 be propagated in his vineyards by grafting, with the result that to-day Soutello 

 yields excellent wines of the highest class." 



Villa Maior further refutes Fonseca's poor opinion of Touriga — " What that 

 author said of the little permanence of the colouring matter of Touriga wine has 

 not been confirmed since we are better acquainted with this variety." 



Mas and Pulliat (1877) quote Villa Maior as saying that Touriga 

 " is a variety much appreciated in the upper part of the Douro region, 

 which produces the best wine of Portugal, because its yield is very 

 regular, and because it gives to the wine a most^ agreeable taste of 

 fruit, reminding of that of a Reinette apple. It is, together with 

 Tinta Francisca and Mourisco Tinto, the dominant vine in these vine- 

 yards." 



* This is in contradiction with modern scientific views concerning grafting. French scientists 

 deny that specific variation, in other words, a durable change, can be brougiit about in the scion through 

 the agency of the stock. Possibly the faulty Touriga vines referred to were affected with the obscure 

 dise:\se, known in France .^s Court Nov^, which seems to be similar to what we know as " Rogue " vines 

 in Victoria. 



