Prats & Symington Chryseia Douro 2016

Professional Ratings

• 95 Wine Spectator
  An impressive red that shows finesse to the generous profile of cherry tart, red plum and raspberry gelée notes, cast with licorice, Earl Grey tea, pepper and graphite details. Aromas of violet and mocha echo on the tannic finish. Needs a few years in the cellar. Best from 2021 through 2031.
• 95 Wine Enthusiast
  Based on the magnificent Quinta de Roriz, this wine is a joint venture between the French Prats family and the Portuguese Symingtons. What has now become an icon wine is made with a nod to Bordeaux, richly structured while also elegant and layering tannins and fruit. It is obviously a wine to age, so wait until 2023.
• 94 James Suckling

  A full-bodied red with aromas of blackberries, dried blackcurrants, cocoa, walnuts, dried porcini and dried herbs. It’s firm and structured with tight-grained, chewy tannins and bright acidity. Concentrated and tannic with savory character. Good length. 60% touriga nacional and 40% touriga franca. Drink or hold.

• 93 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  COMMENTARY: The 2017 Prats & Symington Chryseia packs impressive fruit and power on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine brings excellent aromas and flavors of black fruit and complementary oak. Enjoy it with a grilled ribeye in a shallot-accented, wine reduction sauce. (Tasted: April 8, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
• 92 Wine & Spirits
  A dynamic vintage of Chryseia, this wine takes Douro fruit toward silkiness without shedding the spicy schist distinction of its tannins or the dark flavors of the local varieties. Floral freshness lives in the silky texture, pointing up the blue and juicy black raspberry flavors while tannic freshness carries the wine’s power, structuring it for development over the next ten years. Charles Symington and Bruno Prats select the fruit for this wine from two estate vineyards, Quinta de Roriz and Quinta da Perdiz, including fruit from another Symington family property, Vila Velha. It’s destemmed and crushed, fermented in stainless steel and aged in new 400-liter French oak barrels, a winemaking regime that brings a Bordeaux perspective to Douro fruit.
• 92 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The 2016 Chryseia is a 60/40 blend of Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca aged for 15 months in mostly (80%) new French oak. It comes in at 14% alcohol. This adds concentration, finesse and intensity to the Post Scriptum this issue, but it is most impressive for its pure essence of fruit. It doesn't seem jammy in terms of concentration, but as you let it sit on your palate, it sure does show off its intense fruitiness. There are no holes in the mid-palate as it finishes. This doesn't seem to me as lifted and as fresh as the 2015, but the concentration level may exceed it. The next question is always the hardest one: Will it turn into really more special as it ages? There, I have some doubts. Let's start here and be a little conservative. It may overtake the 2015 in time—and then again, it may not. It is more or less drinkable now but giving it a bit longer wouldn't hurt.