Marques de Murrieta Rioja Reserva 2015
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Winemaker Notes
#40 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2019
Tangible proof of elegance, balance and constancy characteristic of the Marques de Murrieta Winery and its surrounding vineyards situated in the Ygay Estate, it is a red reserva wine with a balanced aging of two years in new and partly new American oak barrels and a year and a half in bottle. The result is an elegant wine that combines complexity and fineness, summing up the best attributes of our identity and actuality. Marques de Murrieta is more than a brand in the international market, it represents age-old wisdom expressed in one of the most recognized wines of Spain. With our daily work, respect and love for our land, the selection of the best grapes and the attention to detail throughout its almost four years of production, Marques de Murrieta is a safe and constant value of the best quality.
Pair with baked red snapper with grilled vegetables, white wine, apple, lime and rosemary; Cameros truffle with mushrooms, and cabbage with extra virgin olive oil; Milk-fed lamb chops with buttermilk, asparagus and red wine; and suckling pig confit with its crunchy skin and caramelized apple.
Blend: 80% Tempranillo, 12% Graciano, 6% Mazuelo, 2% Garnacha.
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesSo 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.
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. It's a ripe and powerful vintage that only suffers next to the 2016 I tasted next to it when there's a jump in precision and finesse. This is by far the largest volume produced at Murrieta, with almost one million bottles.
This grows at Finca Ygay, Murrieta’s estate in Logroño. It’s based on tempranillo (80 percent), with graciano, mazuelo and garnacha adding spice. Black and smoky up front, with dark-cherry richness, it has a silken texture and notes of cardamom to point up the meaty edges of the tannins. Its ripeness feels easy and relaxed, ready for duck breast seared rare.
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.