page_title: Tourbat
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tourbat / History
caption_attribution_description: Kingdom of Aragon with the modern day wine regions of Roussillon and Sardinia highlighted to show the territories of the Tourbat grape.
context_page_description: Tourbat is a white grape variety planted primarily in the French wine region of the Côtes du Roussillon AOC where is sometimes called Malvoisie du Roussillon. It is also found in the Italian wines from Sardinia where the grape is known as Torbato and in the Aragon region of Spain. As a varietal, Tourbat is known for its smokey notes.
context_section_description: The exact origins of Tourbat are unknown, with some ampelographers and wine historian suggesting that it has a similar origins as Grenache and is likely a Spanish variety. Its presence in Roussillon seems to trace to that area's time under the Kingdom of Majorca with James I of Aragon was lord of over a wide expanse of land that crosses the modern-day borders of southern France and northern eastern Spain. Similarly, like Grenache, Tourbat may have spread to Sardinia when the island was under the rule of the Kingdom of Aragon.
  Plantings of Tourbat greatly declined in the 20th century with Sardinia remaining the one significant source of the variety for a large part of that century. Even there the grape was on the verge of extinction until one producer, Sella & Mosca, began focusing on the variety and propagating healthier cuttings. Their work also lead to a slight resurgence of interest in the Roussillon region in the 1980s when the new cuttings of healthier vines were imported from Sardinia. However, overall the variety is still not widely planted.
caption: Wine historians believe that Tourbat took a similar path as Grenache in spreading from Spain to Roussillon and the island of Sardinia (highlighted) while both were under the Crown of Aragon (14th century territories pictured)
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