Tourbat

Identity

Tourbat carries three names depending on where you meet it: Tourbat in the French catalogue, Malvoisie du Roussillon among Catalan growers, Torbato in Sardinia.

The second is the most misleading. "Malvoisie" names not a variety but a family of names, spread from Madeira to Greece and applied to varieties with no genetic connection. Malvoisie du Roussillon is not the Malvasia of Madeira, which is not the Italian Malvasia.

This corpus has met that trap already with Trebbiano, whose name covers distinct varieties, and with the South-West's Auxerrois, which means a red. A family name is not an identity.

In the vineyard

Bud burst mid-season, ripeness late. A slightly drooping, bushy habit, short pruning required.

And a precise requirement the source notes: it needs soils of a certain kind. That is unusual — most records describe a tolerance, this one describes a need.

Its vigour is not filled in. Empty field, "not established".

In the glass

Medium to high acidity, medium to full body, no tannin.

The acidity is what counts here. In the principal varieties of Banyuls's vins doux naturels, where Grenache Blanc and Clairette are low in acid and the residual sugar is considerable, a white that holds its acidity carries the whole balance. It is the same function as Piquepoul Blanc in the Languedoc or Terret Blanc at Corbières — but at a higher rank, since it is a principal variety.

This entry's single descriptor is a reading of that register, not a quotation.

Where it is named

At Banyuls, among the principal varieties for the vins doux naturels.

It is the only published appellation in this corpus to cite it, and it gives it the front rank — which sets it apart from the other rare Roussillon whites published here, all of them accessories.

What it gets confused with

Every Malvasia, and that is this entry's subject. The name circulates across three continents and covers varieties with nothing in common.

Macabeu, the other Catalan white of Banyuls, which plays a neighbouring role but keeps less acidity.