Prats & Symington 'Prazo De Roriz' Douro 2021
The Symington’s are a family of British and Portuguese origin that has lived and worked in Portugal since the 19th century. Their family business - now run by the 4th and 5th generation - is founded on a deep commitment to Portugal's people, its lands and its wines. Today there are 10 family members working across the business, committed to producing the finest ports and wines and building on the achievements of the previous generations.
They own and run four of the leading port houses, Graham's, Dow's, Warre's, and Cockburn's, as well as a portfolio of Douro wines consisting of Quinta do Vesuvio, Quinta do Ataíde, Altano, and Prats & Symington. Additionally, they have recently launched a new project, Quinta da Fonte Souto, in the Alto Alentejo sub-region of Portalegre.
The Douro is the world’s largest area of mountain vineyard and a Unesco World Heritage site. The vines are planted on steeply terraced hillsides and much vineyard work continues to be done by hand - an increasing rarity in the world’s great wine regions. These indigenous vines provide low yields of very high quality grapes, due to their natural adaptation to the climate and the well-draining schistous soils.
In 1999 the Syminton family formed a partnership with the Prats family of Bordeaux to unite their skills to reimagine the style of Douro DOC wines. Their vision was to demonstrate that the Douro Valley can produce not just great ports, but great dry red wines too. Prats & Symington wines are made at one of the Douro’s greatest estates, the beautiful Quinta de Roriz. This historic vineyard dates from 1565 and has long been famous for the quality of its wines. The 42-hectare Roriz vineyard is complemented by the 23-ha Quinta da Perdiz in the neighboring Rio Torto valley.
The Prazo de Roriz is characterized particularly by red fruit flavors - raspberries and cherries and the Quinta de Roriz terroir provides a distinctive minerality and appealing peppery spice. The Quinta da Perdiz vineyard also provides grapes for Prazo. The wine is made for drinking young, but with the potential for developing in bottle for several years.
The hand-picked grapes for Prazo de Roriz are placed in small, shallow containers and on arrival at the Quinta de Roriz winery the bunches are manually sorted, aer which the berries undergo an automated selection process to ensure that only grapes in ideal condition reach the stainless steel vats. Following gentle crushing, fermentation is induced through inoculation with a specially selected yeast culture and proceeds at temperatures between 72 and 75°F. Gentle macerations are favored in order to produce esh and uity wines, approachable om a young age while retaining good aging potential.
Suitable for Vegans. Certified B Corp.
