Marqués de Murrieta - Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial 2011
Marqués de Murrieta is located in Logroño, in the heart of La Rioja in Spain . The company was founded in 1852 by Don Luciano Murrieta and has been owned by the Cebrián-Sagarriga family since 1983. Don Luciano Murrieta applied the techniques learned in Bordeaux to make the first Rioja wine in 1852, with the intention of perpetuating it in time. His vision was to create a wine with great aging potential and start marketing it outside Spain. He exported his first vintage, the legendary 1852, to countries like Mexico and Cuba, making it the first great Rioja wine to be exported. Today, the vineyards total 300 hectares and are located between 400 and 500 meters above sea level. Marqués de Murrieta also owns Pazo Barrantes , an Albariño producer in the Rias Baixas appellation in Galicia.
Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva is the flagship vintage of Marqués de Murrieta, produced only in exceptional vintages. The 2011 vintage is a blend of Tempranillo (84%) and Mazuelo (16%) . The grapes come from La Plana, a 40-hectare vineyard planted in 1950 and located at 485 meters above sea level, the highest area of the Ygay estate (the 300-hectare estate surrounding the winery in Rioja Alta). After manual harvesting, the harvest is destemmed and the grape varieties are vinified separately in stainless steel vats. Extraction is done with pumping over and unloading. The Tempranillo is aged for 28 months in 225 liter American oak barrels while the Mazuelo is aged for the same period in 225 liter French oak barrels . After blending, the wine remains in concrete vats for 13 months .
Grape varieties: 84% Tempranillo, 16% Mazuelo