Just tasted with Eduardo González at Adega Algueira, on a rather cool, wet day in late November. Was v. impressed by the range of reds, Risco, made with merenzao included. (Whites were equally good.) Eduardo said that opinion in the region is that merenzao was an indigenous variety; he opined that, as Ribeira Sacra was on the Camino to Santiago de Compostela, it made more sense to think that maybe some caministi tucked cuttings from the region into their bags and took them back to the Jura, rather than that they brought cuttings from Jura to Ribeira Sacra. Comments? (I am in Portugal, and my copy of Wine Grapes is back in London…). D’Arcy Fenton
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I can see why you might not have your copy of Wine Grapes in your pocket (you might want to consider the Kindle version!). I’ve just looked at mine and according to Dr José Vouillamoz’s research (it was José who provided all the DNA and historical information), it was first mentioned in the Jura under the spelling Troussot in 1732. The next para reads: ‘DNA profiling has established that Trousseau has been cultivated in Spain and Portugal for at least two centuries under different names such as Bastardo, Merenzao and Verdejo Negro (Gago et al. 2009), and under the name Maturana Tinta (Félix Cabello and Victor de la Serna, personal communications), but it is not known how it reached the Iberian peninsula.’
The main reason for putting its origin in the Jura is explained later in the entry: 'Trousseau belongs to the Salvanien ampelographic group (see p xxvii; Bisson 2009), making it unlikely that this variety originated in Iberia. This is confirmed by DNA parentage analysis, which strongly suggests that Trousseau (under the name Merenzao), Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc are siblings (Santana et al. 2010; Myles et al. 2011), and that Trousseau has a likely parent–offspring relationship with Savagnin (Myles et al. 2011), as shown in the Pinot pedigree diagram.
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Thanks, Julia, your answer is authoritative.
By the way, I should correct something in my posting; we tasted with Fabio Gonzalez, not Eduardo.
Suffice to say that Adega Algueira know how to get the best from the variety; the Risco was first class, and able to age for many years. Fortunately, they still have older vintages on offer.
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Thanks, D’Arcy, that’s good to know. Unfortunately I haven’t personally tasted any of their wines though there are a few notes on their wines in our database. I do remember tasting excellent Merenzao wines from Quinta da Muradella in the past, though they refer to the variety as Bastardo on their labels.
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