Prats & Symington, Chryseia, Douro 2017

The 2017 Chryseia is a 75/25 blend of Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca aged for 16 months in mostly (80%) new French oak. It comes in at 14.1% alcohol. From a big vintage, this shows intense fruit, but the calling card here will be its finesse and focus. It is a beautifully crafted wine. Very precise, this has a long and tight finish. The aromatic fruit is in need of some development, and this really needs cellaring for a couple of years. With aeration, it does become more expressive, but this is not ready, even though the tannins are not really hard. The fruit needs to develop more than the tannins need to moderate. This looks like a potentially great Chryseia, but it is not showing all it has today. It is certainly the most refined of the Symington/P&S wines this issue, with a very Old World feel to it, if you'll pardon the stereotype. It showed beautifully the next day as well. At that point, the fruit demonstrated how concentrated it really is. The only remaining question is how well it does in the cellar. I'm betting that it does well.

• Drinking Window: 2022 - 2045
• Reviewer Name: Mark Squires
• Review Date: December 2019