Prats & Symington Chryseia Douro 2015
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Wine Enthusiast
If any wine from the Douro has a Bordeaux influence, it is this wine. Produced as part of a joint venture between the Prats family of Bordeaux and the Symington family of the Douro, this wine shows great attention to tannins and structure while allowing the black fruits to shine. It is a stylish wine, powerful while wearing that power lightly.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Chryseia is a 65/35 blend of Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca aged for 15 months in mostly (80%) new French oak. It comes in at 14.2% alcohol. Wonderfully refined and sophisticated, with all that old-school finesse in the mid-palate, this still has sufficient depth—in fact, it expands in the glass—along with ripe tannins for support. Focused, flavorful and precise, this very debonair Chryseia doesn't lack for anything. It also, happily, isn't a wine that hits you over the head. It is all about elegance and balance. It should acquire more complexity with age and it will certainly reward a few years in the cellar, if not more. This could be a fine Bordeaux but instead it is a lovely Chryseia. It is a nice step up over the 2014—a much tougher year. While that overachieved, I doubt it will hold itself together in the cellar as well as this will.
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Wine Spectator
A brooding red, offering generous layers of currant and boysenberry fruit detailed with anise, graphite and dark chocolate. Full, integrated tannins line the finish, marked by tea and rose petal aromas. Drink now through 2025.
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With hundreds of red grape varieties to choose from, winemakers have the freedom to create a virtually endless assortment of blended red wines. In many European regions, strict laws are in place determining the set of varieties that may be used, but in the New World, experimentation is permitted and encouraged resulting in a wide variety of red wine styles. Blending can be utilized to enhance balance or create complexity, lending different layers of flavors and aromas. For example, a red wine blend variety that creates a fruity and full-bodied wine would do well combined with one that is naturally high in acidity and tannins. Sometimes small amounts of a particular variety are added to boost color or aromatics. Blending can take place before or after fermentation, with the latter, more popular option giving more control to the winemaker over the final qualities of the wine.
How to Serve Red Wine
A common piece of advice is to serve red wine at “room temperature,” but this suggestion is imprecise. After all, room temperature in January is likely to be quite different than in August, even considering the possible effect of central heating and air conditioning systems. The proper temperature to aim for is 55° F to 60° F for lighter-bodied reds and 60° F to 65° F for fuller-bodied wines.
How Long Does Red Wine Last?
Once opened and re-corked, a bottle stored in a cool, dark environment (like your fridge) will stay fresh and nicely drinkable for a day or two. There are products available that can extend that period by a couple of days. As for unopened bottles, optimal storage means keeping them on their sides in a moderately humid environment at about 57° F. Red wines stored in this manner will stay good – and possibly improve – for anywhere from one year to multiple decades. Assessing how long to hold on to a bottle is a complicated science. If you are planning long-term storage of your reds, seek the advice of a wine professional.
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.