2011 Castillo Ygay
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Tasting notes
Ygay releases will be sparce in the coming years – as Marqués de Murrieta didn’t produce any of their flagship Gran Reserva Especial in 2013, 2014 or 2015. Our advice: stock up while you can on what is undeniably one of the region’s finest traditionally styled Riojas. The warm 2011 vintage has produced wines of richness and depth – but there’s no lack of vibrancy in Castillo Ygay. This is a wine that speaks clearly of its ultra-traditional production – with coconut, dill, toast, and five spice from two years in American oak, but the vibrant fresh fruit has been preserved with an additional year in concrete. There’s great purity here, with a floral lift, gorgeous acidity and velvet tannins that offer just enough grip on the palate, building to a long and crunchy finish. It will only offer more over the next 15-20 years, developing savoury complexity.
Critic scores
Josh Raynolds, Vinous
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
This shows a concentrated nose of plums, subtle game and hints of rust and dried flowers. On the palate it’s medium- to full-bodied, with evenly distributed flesh and a voluminous structure, yet it remains well balanced, supported by polished, silky tannins. The finish is long and concentrated, and while it can be enjoyed now, it has the structure to benefit from further aging. It should be decanted in advance. Drink or hold.
Soft and earthy, with a touch of balsamic, the tannins of the 2011 Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial fully melt into the layers of medium-bodied blueberry, still vibrant and cohesive after all these years. A top-tier wine from Rioja, the Tempranillo was blended with 16% Mazuelo. Drinking beautifully, it should go another 10-12 years. Marques De Murrieta is the Rioja-based sister brand of Pazo De Barrantes in Rias Baixas.
The 2011 Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial was produced with a blend of 84% Tempranillo and 16% Mazuelo (Cariñena) from a plot called La Plana that was planted in 1950 at 485 meters in altitude, the highest in the Ygay property. The grapes were picked between September 17 and 22, and the Mazuelo was later, on September 28. The bunches were destemmed and lightly crushed and put to ferment in stainless steel for 11 days with constant pump-overs and punch-downs. The Tempranillo matured for 28 months in American oak barrels and the Mazuelo for 28 months in French barriques. It's 14% alcohol and has a pH of 3.65 with 5.6 grams of acidity (measured in tartaric acid per liter). It's very tough to follow a vintage like 2010, and 2011 was not an easy year; the wine is possibly more powerful and concentrated but keeping the freshness, with a longer élevage but very young and lively, with an elegant texture and mouthfeel, great balance and elegance. The wine feels lively, and it seems impossible that it has been in bottle for over six years. It has the classical profile with the effect of the American oak barrels, cigar box, cedar wood, sweet spices—aromatic, intoxicating, complex. This should age very slowly and for a very long time. 131,668 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2016. No 2013, 2014 or 2015 will be produced. They have a 2012, and they will jump from that to 2016. The 2012 will be released in late 2023 or early 2024 and the 2016 in 2027 or 2028. Finger crossed...