2018 Marques de Murrieta Gran Reserva
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They don't produce every wine every year (they skipped this wine in challenging 2017), so the 2018 Gran Reserva follows the 2016. In 2018, a cooler year, they produced it with a selection of the best wines from the year, and the breakdown is 87% Tempranillo, 8% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo (Cariñena) picked between the first and 20th of October, late in a slow-ripening year. It fermented in stainless steel but aged separately by variety in American oak barrels, 25 months this year, blended and kept in concrete until bottling. It's a modern rendition of the old classical Gran Reserva, clean, complex, aromatic, expressive and open, with the logical development time brings, with great balance and freshness in this cooler year. It comes in at 14.2% alcohol with a pH of 3.65. This will be the last vintage of this wine as such, from 2019 onward it will be replaced by another concept of Gran Reserva from one single vineyard that is planted exclusively with Tempranillo and Graciano in the Valsalado lieu-dit. 13,786 bottles and 600 magnums were produced. It was bottled in May 2021.
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Average Score
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
Joaquin Hidalgo, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Gran Reserva Marqués de Murrieta combines Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo. It aged for 27 months in barrels and was bottled in June 2021. Aromas of cedar, sandalwood, mild vanilla and dried herbs frame a profile of red fruit, camphor and orange peel. Medium-bodied, with a silky texture and subtle breadth, this strikes a balance between elegance and flavor, resulting in a polished 2018 with persistent complexity.