Trincadeira (AKA Tinta amarela) Red Wine Variety

Trincadeira is the most commonly used name for this variety in Portugal, but Tinta Amarela is a widely used and accepted synonym. Amarela means yellow in Portuguese. It refers to the colour of the mature shoots.

In Portugal's Douro Valley many of the terraced vineyards are field blends of several varieties as illustrated by this image. Trincadeira is likely to be among the varieties here. Image from Monica749 via Pixabay

Several of the varieties used for port wine are very suitable for table wine production, either alone or in blends.

Other varieties commonly used to make port are Tinta Roriz (AKA Tempranillo), Tinta Barocca, Tinto Cao and Touriga.

As the demand for fortified wines declines there is now quite a trend in the Douro Valley, the home of Port wine, to switch production from making fortified wines to table wines.

This same trend has been evident in Australia as well.

Learn about Portuguese wines with this book

This book will bring you up to speed on Port wines and the varieties used.

The flavour of Trincadera

Here are a couple of descriptions of this variety

Trincadeira in Australia

• Campbells Wines Rutherglen
• First Drop Barossa Valley
• G Patritti & Co McLaren Vale
• Massena Wines Barossa Valley
• Old Plains Adelaide Plains
• Peel Estate Peel
• Quattro Mano Barossa Valley
• Smallfry Wines Barossa Valley
• Yarra Yering Yarra Valley

Patritti's Trincadeira dry red wine from the Barossa Valley

This dozen contains 2 bottles from each of six different producers in several regions. The varieties included are Alicante Bouschet, Carmenere, Lagrein, Montepulciano and Sangiovese, plus a red blend from Heathcote containing Nero d’Avola, Sangiovese, Lagrein, Schioppettino & a little Lambrusco Maestro.

Details here