Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I reported on the current release, the 2001 Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial, previously but underrated it slightly. This cuvee is sourced from a single plot called La Plana planted at over 1500 feet of elevation. It is made up of 93% Tempranillo and 7% Mazuelo chosen for its acidity. The wine is aged for 10 months in new American oak followed by 21 months in seasoned oak. It is then held in bottle for 3-4 years prior to release. Deeply colored, spicy, elegant and complex, the wine has great volume and grip as well as exceptional length. It can be approached now but will easily have a 30 year lifespan.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.