1978 Marques de Murrieta Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial

The 1978 Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial spent 18 years in barrel and 10 years in bottle prior to release. It still has a deep cherry red color along with an aromatic array of underbrush, brier, tobacco, incense, and blackberry. It has slightly sweeter fruit and livelier acidity than the 1994. This lengthy effort is at its peak now where it should remain for another 20 years. Marques de Murrieta is a family owned bodega impeccably run by V. Dalmau Cebrian-Sagarriga who took over from his father in 1996. The estate owns 741 acres of vineyard and is in the process of making dramatic improvements to the physical plant. The Bodega manages to straddle the traditional style with the Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva and the modern style with Dalmau. A bit of white wine is also produced but now in a modern style unlike the white wines described below. During my visit to Marques de Murrieta in May 2010, Senor Cebrian-Sagarriga was kind of enough to open a number of venerable bottles to demonstrate the estate’s history. Importer: Maison Marques & Domaines, New York, NY; tel. (212) 759-4700

Medium red with an amber rim. Highly complex bouquet of fresh and dried red fruits, cherry skin, pipe tobacco, smoky minerals, cigar box and potpourri. Sweet strawberry and cherry flavors stain the palate but are strikingly lithe. Cured tobacco and candied rose flavors emerge with aeration, and the fruit takes a darker turn toward cherry. The tannins have been completely absorbed, allowing the wine's almost decadent sweetness to come through. Expensive, yes, but this would offer newly minted wine lovers an insight into the personality of aged wine from a great region and a very good vintage for the same price as many newly released Napa or Bordeaux wines.

There are just 1250 cases of the exceptional 1978 Gran Reserva Especial Castillo Ygay. Only in the greatest vintages (1917, 1925, 1934, 1942, 1952, 1959, 1964, 1968, 1970, and this 1978) is a portion of the wine held back for extended cask aging. The wine is a blend of 75% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha, 12% Mazuelo, and 3% Graciano aged for 216 months in American oak barriques. The wine was bottled in 1998. Medium ruby-colored, it has a super-expressive bouquet of cedar, leather, Asian spices, mineral, and assorted red and black fruits with the kind of complexity that only extended aging can provide. Remarkably youthful on the palate, the wine shows little sign of age. Ripe, elegant, concentrated, and full-flavored, this beautifully balanced wine can be enjoyed now and should continue to drink well for at least another 12-15 years. Indeed, having recently shared a bottled of the 1952 Castillo Ygay, it seems likely that this 1978 will also have a 50 year lifespan. Marques de Murietta remains a benchmark for traditional Rioja. Like many traditional producers in Rioja, Marques de Murietta has begun fashioning a modern (some would say international) style of Rioja. Importer: Maisons Marques & Domaines USA; Oakland, CA; tel. (510) 587-2000