2005 Prats and Symington Douro Chryseia- Portugal, Douro (5/7/2016)
Was at the offsite storage and found this. Recalling my last experience with it, I figured it was best to see if it was an off bottle. Decanted about 2 hours. This was simple, lacking any structure or complexity, and even though it had some fruit left that fruit was very “flat” tasting. As if when a can of Coke loses its carbonation. Other older vintages, like the 2001 and 2004, are still very good and holding nicely. This vintage is falling apart at the seams. Drink up as soon as possible.
78 Points (78 pts.)
Falling apart, who would have thought after only 10 years? I love many Portuguese wines, but am not a fan of most Douro ones, finding them a little too big, a little too over oaked, and too much baked fruit. At the prices charged for them nowadays, I’ll pass unless someone tries to convince me otherwise on their dime. I miss old Barca Velha…
Thankfully this is starting to change. Producers are finally starting to understand what it takes to make a good Douro wine that isn’t full of new oak and the like. One will never get a 12% ABV wine out of the douro simply due to the hot weather there in the summer. 14-15% is pretty standard. But where the Douro typically wins is the cold nights give them great acidity so they age well and typically don’t come off as overripe monsters. The one thing the Douro has going for it is balance in wines.
I’d recommend trying some newer vintages, as I mentioned the oak is finally getting dialed back by many producers and they are starting to become more unique to the region. Which they should be.
As for this vintage/wine. 2005 was a tougher year for Douro wines. Some did really well (Niepoort for example) and some not as well. Looks like this is falling into the not so well camp. It was also pretty early in the game for this wine, 2000 being the first vintage of it and the 2000 is very advanced now. So they were still getting it dialed in and have done a pretty good job of it. Newer vintages of it, thankfully, are not as “modern” or new world in style. Granted, Chryseia was initially made to be a Douro wine with a more “modern” style and will probably always lean more to that style, but at least now it’s a little less so.