Rioja Gran Reserva Marques de Murrieta 2015

Description

Marqués de Murrieta was one of the first Rioja Houses to be established, in 1852, by Luciano Francisco Ramón de Murrieta one of the founding fathers of modern Rioja winemaking. Luciano, drawing on his experiences in France, felt that to make the best wines in the world the grapes needed to come from a single estate, which guaranteed complete control over the grapes, and established the Ygay Estate near Logroño in Rioja Alta. Luciano was a leader in using French techniques to develop greater complexity and longevity from Tempranillo, Rioja’s indigenous red grape.

A warmer vintage, which benefits the higher altitude vineyards at Marques de Murrieta. A short, early harvest, with small berries, producing wines with concentration and richness, backed with a line of acidity.

A barrel selection of the most age-worthy wines from the vintage, the 2015 Gran Reserva Limited Edition is a blend of 80% Tempranillo, 9% Graciano, 9% Mazuelo and 2% Garnacha from their 300 hectares of vineyards. The grapes were picked between the September 14 and October 16; the destemmed and lightly crushed grapes were fermented by plot and variety in stainless steel, and the varieties aged separately for 27 months in American barrels. Tasted next to the wines from 2018 and onward, this is a more powerful and concentrated wine, also because of the style of the vintage. The concept is to make a wine with more structure, power and aging potential. It's very classical with notes from the aging in American oak clearly recognizable, very spicy and tasty. The wine is medium to full-bodied and powerful but already developed by some time in bottle; it's spicy, tasty, chalky and still young with potential to age. 62,418 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2018. 94pts Wine Advocate