Prats & Symington Post Scriptum de Chryseia, Douro 2018 is no longer available

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Prats & Symington Post Scriptum de Chryseia, Douro 2018

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Refined Douro red, concentrated but fresh, with heady floral aroma, a sprinkling of cedary spice, fine grained tannins and smart, elegantly integrated French oak. It is now two decades since the Symingtons of Portugal joined forces with their friend Bruno Prats, formerly of Château Cos d’Estournel in Bordeaux, to produce the flagship Douro red Chryseia. Post Scriptum was born later, in the spirit of a Bordeaux ‘second wine’, approachable younger but a fine wine in its own right.
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Code: PW9051

Wine characteristics

  • Red Wine
  • Full-bodied
  • Now to 2028
  • 14.5% Alcohol
  • oak used but not v. noticeable
  • Cork, natural

Portugal

Like its neighbour Spain, Portugal has been undergoing something of a quiet revolution over the last twenty years or so. A reluctance to follow trends and plant international grapes is now paying dividends and the new breed of full-blooded, fruit-filled wines are more than able to compete on the world stage. The unique flavours that are the hallmark of Portugal's indigenous grape varieties have become its trump card.

Vinho Verde, sometimes spritzy and youthful and sometimes made with the aim of creating a more serious white wine, is in the verdant north-west, bordering the Spanish province of Galicia. A wet and fertile area, the grapes ripen with moderate sugar levels and refreshing acidity, meaning that the wines are usually lowish in alcohol at about 10-11%. Astringent, low alcohol red Vinho Verde is also produced.

Trás-os-Montes is a remote region of harsh winters and hot, dry summers in the north-east of the country is bound on one side by high mountains and on the other the...
Like its neighbour Spain, Portugal has been undergoing something of a quiet revolution over the last twenty years or so. A reluctance to follow trends and plant international grapes is now paying dividends and the new breed of full-blooded, fruit-filled wines are more than able to compete on the world stage. The unique flavours that are the hallmark of Portugal's indigenous grape varieties have become its trump card.

Vinho Verde, sometimes spritzy and youthful and sometimes made with the aim of creating a more serious white wine, is in the verdant north-west, bordering the Spanish province of Galicia. A wet and fertile area, the grapes ripen with moderate sugar levels and refreshing acidity, meaning that the wines are usually lowish in alcohol at about 10-11%. Astringent, low alcohol red Vinho Verde is also produced.

Trás-os-Montes is a remote region of harsh winters and hot, dry summers in the north-east of the country is bound on one side by high mountains and on the other the border with Spain (the name means 'behind the mountains'. The schistous soils and the grapes are similar to those of the Douro. Reds are often lighter and more aromatic than those of neighbouring Douro.

The Douro is one of the most beautiful wine regions in the world, and deservedly Portugal's best known, the Douro has quickly emerged to lead the way as the country's premium wine region and there is a real pioneering spirit amongst the winemakers here, port shippers included. Although there is an enormous variety of different terroirs within the Douro Valley, this is essentially a sparsely populated, hot, arid region where grapes are grown on spectacularly steep terraced slopes. Wine grapes are the same as those that go into Port. Wines tend to be high in tannin and flavour.

Dão is south of the Douro on granite slopes protected by high mountains and pine forests. The region produces one of Portugal's better-known reds of the same name. Once dominated by rather lack-lustre co-operatives, the area now has a whole clutch of dynamic, small producers making elegant, approachable and enjoyable wines.

Between the mountains and the coast, on fertile clay soils, is Bairrada (barro is Portuguese for clay). Better known for red wines, this is one of the only wine regions in Portugal to be dominated by a single grape variety,the tannic, high-acid baga, making wines that can be tough and astringent in their youth but which soften with age, becoming beguilingly perfumed. These days many blend baga with non-indigenous grapes to make a friendlier style, but the greatest are pure baga. The area also benefits from late-afternoon breezes which favour the production of fresh, food-friendly whites and increasingly popular sparkling wines.

Beira Interior is a rather disparate region covering a vast swathe of inland Portugal south of the Douro and east of Dão. Vineyards are grown at altitude on granite soils. In the north, grapes are similar to those of the Douro while the south has a whole mix of varieties.

Lisboa is a large, coastal region that runs north from Lisbon. Atlantic breezes help cool the vineyards and maintain the fresh acidity and aromatics in the mostly white wines. North of Bucelas, on the Atlantic west coast lies the strip of rolling countryside that contains nine separate DOCs under the umbrella name of Lisboa. This is Portugal's largest wine producing region in volume terms.

Bucelas was the first wine The Society ever sold! This tiny DOC is one of the closest to Lisbon. It produces breezy dry whites which are popular locally.

Tejo was formerly known as Ribatejo is known for good, everyday drinking wines in a range of styles from a wide range of permitted grapes. This region lies on either side of the River Tagus

Lying across the mouth of theTagus river, the Península de Setúbal is a flat, sandy region with the exception of the Serra da Arrábida a short chain of mountains with clay and limestone soils. There are two DOCs here, Palmela north-east of the peninsula where the castelão grape is ideally suited to the sandy soils, and Setúbal, where a sweet fortified wine is made primarily from muscat of Alexandria.

The Alentejo province stretches south from the Tagus to the Algarve and east to the border with Spain and covers almost a third of continental Portugal. Divided into seven diverse sub-regions, the undulating hills are home to many crops. Despite the challengingly arid climate here, this is a dynamic region, referred to sometimes as Portugal's 'new world'.
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Prats & Symington

One of the most famous international joint ventures in the wine world, the partnership between Bruno Prats (formerly of Château Cos d'Estournel) in Bordeaux and the Symington family in Portugal's Douro valley began in 1998, when they set out to produce a flagship Douro red wine.

Chryseia was the result, and the 2000 was the first vintage to be released. Chryseia is the Greek translation of Douro, literally ‘of gold’, referring to the occasional change in the colour of the river itself after rains disturb the silt, turning the water temporarily golden brown.

Prats & Symington now owns two prime Douro vineyards: Quinta de Roriz and Quinta da Perdiz, grapes from which form the backbone of Chryseia and Post Scriptum. Chryseia undergoes long maceration during vinification and is aged in 100% new French oak in the Quinta's schist-walled barrel cellar, in the style of winemaking typical in Bordeaux. A third wine is also produced: Prazo de Roriz. This is very much in the house style but made for earlier drinking.

Portugal Vintage 2018

2018 will forever be remembered by Port producers for its small and in some cases exceptional crop, producing limited quantities of superb wines. That and what Charles Symington described as a ‘rollercoaster’ of a year, one of contrasts, when exhilaration and trepidation went hand in hand.

matthewjukes.com

The ‘second wine’ of Chryseia is tremendous in 2018, and it is a very much more structured and oak-driven wine than Prazo, which maintains a more mellow mood.  I would go further and say...

The ‘second wine’ of Chryseia is tremendous in 2018, and it is a very much more structured and oak-driven wine than Prazo, which maintains a more mellow mood.  I would go further and say that 2018 Post Scriptum looks smarter than some of the not too distant Chryseia vintages.  This is thanks to the quality of the 2018 harvest and also the incremental improvements that have been made to this wine over the years.  The perfume is sensational, and the mid-palate is packed with black fruit, but the finish is where the energy and drive come, from and it manifests itself in a magnificent set of tannins.  While you can drink this wine now, I would certainly be tempted to hold off for two or three years. 17.5+/20

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Matthew Jukes

2012 vintage reviews

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