Reviews

April 2024 97 Points Vinous Media

The 2012 Gran Reserva Especial Castillo Ygay is 81% Tempranillo and 19% Mazuelo sourced from La Plana vineyard, planted on the Ygay Estate, Rioja Alta. Aged for 34 months in French and American oak barrels, this wine offers displays a garnet color with a brick sheen. It reveals a complex aroma of bee wax, dried flowers, cassis, sour cherry, cedar and vanilla, with a candied layer. Dry, silky and fairly juicy, the fine-grained tannins and heightened acidity deliver a cleansing, long-lasting finish. This exceptional wine exudes energy and demonstrates proven aging potential, making it one to savor and age gracefully.

March 2024 93 Points View From the Cellar

The 2016 Rioja “Gran Reserva” from Marqués de Murrieta is composed in this vintage from a blend of eighty-two percent tempranillo, nine percent garnacha, seven percent mazuelo and two percent graciano. The wine tips the scales at an even fourteen percent this year and was raised for twenty-six months in small American oak barrels. The wine’s aromatic constellation is refined and pure, wafting from the glass in a lovely mix of black cherries, black raspberries, cigar wrapper, a complex array of Rioja spice tones, a fine base of soil, woodsmoke and cedary oak. On the palate the wine is deep, young and full-bodied, with excellent depth of fruit and soil inflection, firm, chewy tannins, lovely balance and grip and a long, nascently complex finish. This is going to be outstanding, but it will demand some time in the cellar to properly back away from its tannins. 2034-2085.

March 2024 93 Points View From the Cellar

The 2019 Rioja “Reserva” from Marqués de Murrieta is a beautifully old school example, composed from a cépages of eighty-seven percent tempranillo, six percent graciano, five percent mazuelo and two percent garnacha. The wine is aged entirely American oak barrels for two years. The wine’s bouquet wafts from the glass in a refined blend of black cherries, black raspberries, a touch of nutskin, cigar wrapper, chalky soil tones, brown spices, woodsmoke and a nice framing of American oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a superb core of fruit, fine balance and grip, ripe, buried tannins and a long, poised and already velvety finish. This superb bottle of Rioja is just starting its journey and will be an even better drink five to ten years down the road, but it is already quite approachable and hardly a crime to be opening today! 2024-2060+.

March 2024 94+ Points View From the Cellar

The 2019 vintage of “Capellanía” Blanco is the soon to be released next version of this fine white Rioja from Marqués de Murrieta. The wine is made entirely of Viura, planted on six hectares of land at the highest altitude on the estate’s famous Ygay property. The wine is fermented in large concrete vats and aged for twenty-two months in new French Burgundy casks. The 2019 offers up a beautiful, youthful bouquet of pear, raw almond, a beautiful base of white soil tones, dried flowers, a whisper of wild fennel and a gentle framing of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and impeccably balanced, with a lovely core of fruit, fine soil inflection, zesty acids and a long, focused and nascently complex finish. This is already a delicious glass of wine, but it is still fairly primary and far more complexity will emerge if it is given some time to hibernate in the cellar. Great juice! 2024-2060.

February 29, 2024 97 Points The Wine Advocate

The 2012 Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial was produced with a blend of 81% Tempranillo and 19% Mazuelo (Cariñena) from the plot La Plana in the Ygay estate, which was planted in 1950 at 485 meters above sea level, the highest in the Ygay property. The Tempranillo was picked between September 17th and 19th, and the Mazuelo was harvested on September 25th. The bunches were destemmed and lightly crushed and put to ferment in stainless steel for 10 days with constant pump-overs and délestages. The Tempranillo matured for 34 months in American oak barrels, and the Mazuelo also matured for 34 months but in French barriques. It was then blended and put in concrete for a further 20 months. It has 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.65 and 5.8 grams of acidity (measured in tartaric acid per liter). It seems to follow the style of the 2011, perhaps somewhere between the 2010 and 2011—very classical, with notes of earth, cedar, spice and meat. The palate is polished, sleek and elegant with a touch of earthy rusticity. 103,216 bottles, 3,121 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in May 2019. No 2013, 2014 or 2015 will be produced, so from here, they will jump to 2016 to be released in 2026 or 2027. I look forward to it, and I'm intrigued about what I'm going to find when I taste it.

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