“The 2018 Rioja Finca Ygay “Reserva” from Marqués de Murrieta is composed from a blend of eighty-six percent tempranillo, eight percent graciano, four percent mazuelo and two percent garnacha in this vintage. The wine is aged for twenty-one months in American oak casks, two hundred and twenty-five liters in size, with a percentage of the casks new for this wine. The wine is still fairly youthful at five years of age, offering up a bright and complex nose of raspberries, cigar wrapper, a lovely base of soil tones, Rioja spices, woodsmoke, a touch of spiced meats and cedary oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and already nicely transparent in personality, with a lovely core of fruit, excellent soil signature and grip, ripe tannins and a long, tangy and complex finish. This is going to be a superb bottle, but with the addition of some new American oak for the elevage, the wine still has some tannins to soften up before it starts to truly drink properly, so show it a bit of patience and let it rest comfortably in the cellar for a few years. 2030-2085+.”

“The flagship red 2018 Rioja Reserva was produced with a blend of 86% Tempranillo, 8% Graciano, 4% Mazuelo (a.k.a. Cariñena) and 2% Garnacha selected from their 300 hectares of vineyards that exemplifies the character of the vintage and the place. 2018 was a year with good rain and a cool season that resulted in a late harvest, which started on October 1 and was slow and delivered grapes with good freshness. Each variety and plot fermented separately in stainless steel. and the wines aged separately in American oak barrels for 21 months and then settled in concrete until bottling. It follows the path of the 2016, where I noticed a change that is taken further in this, controlling the power and increasing the freshness. It's very aromatic, a year completely different from the 2017; it has less structure and more freshness and subtler balance and enough oomph, concentration and power neatly compensated by freshness. I believe 2018 was a very good vintage to implement this change. It's perfumed, fresh, elegant and medium-bodied, with a velvety texture. Superb!”