About the Wine

This is the lowest priced wine we've offered in our Weekend Wine Collector Series in 2019. The reality is that this is a stalwart winery in Rioja. The castle Ygay stands guard over this heritage vineyard that is well regarded as making age-worthy wines. The 2015 Reserva has been unanimously rated highly, but what's missing from the reviews is that these wines need time. 2015 was a 94pt vintage and highly regarded across Europe. Even Suckling acknowledged, this wine is better from 2019 onward. A single vineyard wine of this caliber from Napa or Bordeaux easily carries a $90+ price tag.

Marqués de Murrieta´s foundation is linked to the origins of the Rioja wines since Luciano Murrieta produced in 1852 the first Rioja wine and was also the first one to export his wines. Luciano, appointed Marquis by the King Amadeo of Savoy thanks to his work in Rioja, travelled to Bordeaux to learn the winemaking techniques that he introduced later in Spain. He established the concept of “château” in the Ygay Estate where he built the emblematic Ygay Castle.

The winemaking is under the guidance of María Vargas. She is one of the highest-profile female winemakers in Rioja, and very much a part of Murrieta’s modern transformation. She joined the winery as assistant winemaker in 1995, and took over the top position in 2000. Vargas is a brilliant blender as well as a sensitive winemaker, adept at combining the different plots of Murrieta’s vineyards to make exceptional wines with character and quality.

Reviews

So fresh and elegant with more than enough concentration and structure, this is a fine example of a 2015 Reserva. Ripe-blackberry, licorice, smoke and bourbon notes. I love the velvety texture of the long, intense finish. Better from 2019 and with long aging potential. ~93JS

The red blend 2015 Rioja Reserva is 80% Tempranillo with 12% Graciano, 6% Mazuelo and 2% Garnacha, a little more Graciano and Mazuelo, something logical in ripe and warm years like 2015. It's produced with grapes from a diversity of the 30 different plots within the estate, to represent the character of if. It fermented in stainless steel and matured in American oak barrels for 18 months. It's spicy and somewhat balsamic, with some dusty tannins. ~93WA

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