Marques De Murrieta Rioja Wine Tasting with Arthur DeLencquesaing

Monday, October 21, 2019 - 07:30 PM

This Event has been read: 1799 times.


 

Great wines are better when you drink them with GREAT friends!


Always Drink the Good Stuff First!

You know who said that….

 

Being on the subject of great wines from Spain this week we figured we would continue with that theme into the next week with a special Monday night tasting featuring the legendary Marques De Murrieta.  We have Arthur DeLencquesaing in town to host this event and the fee is $125 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com

 

 

Image result for Marques De Murrieta Rioja

Marques De Murrieta Rioja Wine Tasting with Arthur DeLencquesaing
Monday, October 21, 2019
7:30 PM
Image result for 2018 Pazo Barrantes Albarino
2018 Pazo Barrantes Albarino
Price: $16.75    Your Price: $14.74

Pazo Barrantes is undoubtedly one of the flagship wines of the Rías Baixas D.O. Its Albariño grape grows in the Pazo de Barrantes’ vineyards, a bucolic twelve hectares single vineyard that warrants plenty of aromatic complexity to the wine, thanks to the wide range of natural essences that pervade the landscape influencing the grape’s aromatic development. An Albariño of great personality, with a striking and fragrant varietal character and surprising bottle ageing potential. It charms the nose with intense floral, fruity and balsamic aromas and delights the mouth with its depth, elegance and freshness. Pazo Barrantes is a perfect blend of structure and silkiness, complexity and exuberance, longevity and immediate enjoinment.

 

Image result for 2011 Marques de Murrieta Rioja Blanco Reserva Capellania
2011 Marques de Murrieta Rioja Blanco Reserva Capellania
Price: $22.50    Your Price: $19.80

100% Viura this wine is aged in 18 Months new French oak, a very pretty bouquet here with some vanilla spice and white floral nuance has some creme caramel nuance and aromas of Asian pear, apple and an exotic herbal nuance. A big white with lots lot layers of fruit toasty oak spice and white floral nuance and a long fresh finish, one of the best Viura based wines that I have tasted and an incredible value!! This wine was just opened and you can tell it would be better with some air time. Finish 45+ Excellent +

Image result for 2015 Marques de Murrieta Rioja Reserva
2015 Marques de Murrieta Rioja Reserva
Price: $22.25    Your Price: $19.58

(93 points) 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.  Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

Image result for 2009 Marques de Murrieta Dalmau Rioja

2014 Marques de Murrieta Dalmau Reserva Rioja
List Price: $98.25    Your Price: $86.46

A wine of limited production from an old single vineyard where very low yields are grown. It reflects a much more modern facet of Marques de Murrieta, a rigorous selection of the grapes, meticulous extraction and aging in new French oak barrels for a year and a half give this wine a harmonious and intense character. Dalmau is a limited production wine, full of shades and intensity, which shows the most modern side of our winery. It has a complex and velvety nose, with an explosion of aromas of wild fruits, dark chocolate and mineral notes, elegantly combined with the creamy toasting of its ageing in the new French oak barrels. An elegant and extraordinary wine which impresses in every way, with body and harmony, of magnificent balance which creates a powerful wine.

Image result for 2009 Marques de Murrieta Rioja Gran Reserva Castillo y Gay
2009 Marques de Murrieta Rioja Gran Reserva Castillo y Gay
Price: $111.00    Your Price: $97.68

 (96 points) Marqués de Murrieta didn't produce their top red in 2008, so I tasted the 2009 Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial. In 2009, the final blend was Tempranillo with 19% Mazuelo (or Cariñena), one of the highest percentages of Mazuelo ever. The grapes are now sourced from the La Plana vineyard within the Ygay estate, one of the higher-altitude plots at 485 meters. The grapes fermented and aged separately, the Tempranillo in American oak barrels and the Mazuelo in French barriques for 26 months, given its power. It has that seriousness, character and somehow rusticity of the Mazuelo, austere, harmonious and still young. It has good depth and concentration, still young and lively with fine tannins and a backbone of freshness that lifts it up. It will develop for a very long time in bottle. This is a great classical Rioja for the long haul. 109,000 bottles and some larger formats were produced. It was bottled in October 2014. The prices are increasing but so is the quality. The following vintages will be 2010, 2011 and possibly 2012. I cannot wait to taste them...(LG) (2/2018) Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

 

Menu
Jambon De Serrano, Manchego, Sausage Stuffed Olives
Tempranillo Braised Pork Round with Torte Espanola and Tomato Sardine Sauce
Pedro Ximenez Caramel Syrup Covered Flan

The fee for this tasting which includes dinner is $125 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.  Please let us know when you make your reservation if you do not dig swine and chef Toni will be happy to accommodate you. 

 

A bit about Marqués de Murrieta :

This is one of the most famous estates in all of Rioja with the history going back to 1878!  The wines here are magical and are the work of several possessed wine lovers that though out the history of this great property would settle at nothing less than the best.

The founder of this estate traveled from Peru to London and then to Spain to make wine.  Luciano Francisco Ramon de Murrieta was probably mentored by his uncle, General Rivero de Murrieta, who worked in the city as a banker, and reputedly had spent much of his life acquainting himself with the fine wines of the world.   Luciano went home to Spain to serve in the armed forces and undoubtedly saw the potential of his homeland for wine production.  He could not help but notice the English thirst for fine wine and this epiphany was no doubt what nudged him into the direction of the wine business.

In 1848 Luciano travelled to Bordeaux to study wine production and a short four years later he had returned to Rioja to make wine.   Then, four years after that he saw his first serious commercial exploit, as Murrieta sent 100 barrels of Rioja to Mexico and Cuba, however only half of the cargo ever reached shore but what did was a resounding success.  Luciano continued to make wine and in 1878 he founded his own estate at Ygay, not far from Logroño.   His venture was an immediate success, so much so that Queen Isabel II, who enticed her loyal servant back to Spain following her coronation in 1844, to confer on him the title of Marquesado de Murrieta; and thus the estate of Marqués de Murrieta came to life.

Life has its ironies and Luciano died a bachelor in 1911, at the ripe old age of 89.   The estate passed to his nephew, Julián de Olivares, who held court there until his death in 1977. It was then sold to Vicente Cebrián Sagarriga, Count of Creixell.   Ironically, death once again stole the estate of its proprietor, and Vicente's widow and children took control.  It is Vicente's son, Vicente Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga, with his sister Cristina, that now set the course for this famous estate, along with their wunderkind technical director Maria Vargas.

Today the estate consists of 300 hectares of vineyards located close to Logroño.  They are near the border between Rioja Alta and Rioja Baja. They have all seven of the traditional grapes of this area planted here, dominated by Tempranillo of course which accounts for 75% of the vineyard, with Mazuelo, Garnacha and Graziano making up the balance, with small quantities of white varieties, including Viura, Malvasia and Garnacha Blanca.

Marqués de Murrieta produces a wide range of wines in both the red and the white category.  Leading the way is their cellar worthy Castillo Y Gay Gran Reserva Especial, which is probably one of the most well-known wines produced not only here but in the whole of Rioja.  It is a traditional Tempranillo heavy blend, which will often see aging in excess of 36 months in American oak before bottling.  There is also a Reserva Especial, a similar blend also subject to prolonged wood ageing.  I will never forget the 1942 vintage of this wine that we served a year ago, it spent an astounding 29 years in cask and was amazingly fresh and one of the greatest wines that I have ever tasted.  This wine is only made in the very best vintages, like:  1917, 1925, 1934, 1942, 1952, 1959, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1978 and this 2004.  Otherwise Marqués de Murrieta will produce a range of standard Gran Reservas and Reservas which are also exceptional, but experiencing a bottle of the Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial is a reason for celebration- this is truly one of the world’s great wines!!!

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