Winemaker Notes
Blend: 75% Touriga Nacional, 25% Touriga Franca
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The long-lasting joint venture between the Symington family of the Douro and the Prats family from Bordeaux has yielded this latest release. It is, as always, an impressive wine, combining Bordeaux style with Douro intensity. The wine, from a hot vintage, is rich in tannins and black fruits and with a dark coffee aroma.It has great potential. Drink from 2028.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Loaded with a pure core of blueberry, boysenberry and black plum fruit flavors, this bright, focused red is well-tailored and harmonious. The generous fruit is embroidered with a lovely range of milled white pepper, anise, paprika, violet, thyme and lavender accents, plus mocha, toast and mineral notes. The sleek tannins are fine and chalky in texture on the long, long finish. Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca. Drink now through 2042.
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James Suckling
Very attractive nose of blackberries, violets and graphite with dried herb undertones and a hint of tasty oak. The palate is medium- to full-bodied, super polished and subtle, with vibrant fruit and enveloping polished tannins. The wood is very well integrated. 75% touriga nacional and 25% touriga franca. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Chryseia feels very young and undeveloped, with plenty of aromas from the élevage in oak barrels. The wine is now vinified at Quinta do Roriz with prolonged maceration in the Bordeaux style and matured in new 400-liter French oak barrels. It's a wine that is designed for the medium to long term, dominated in its youth by creamy oak, ripe berry fruit and notes of aromatic Mediterranean herbs and flowers. It's medium to full-bodied with contained ripeness and alcohol (14%) and very fine and elegant tannins. This is a very nicely crafted Douro red, perhaps a little predictable and not very exciting, but very good indeed.
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.