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Wine Description
The Story
Marqués de Murrieta is more than a brand in the international market, it represents age-old wisdom expressed in one of the most recognized wines of Spain. With our daily work, respect and love for our land, the selection of the best grapes and the attention to detail throughout its almost four years of production, Marqués de Murrieta is a safe and constant value of the best quality.
Own vineyards: Grapes are sourced from our Ygay Estate: 300 hectares of vineyards surrounding the winery in the southernmost point of Rioja Alta. Altitude ranges from 320 to 485 meters above sea level. It is made from selected vintages.
Grape varieties: 91% Tempranillo, 4% Mazuelo, 3% Graciano, 2% Garnacha.
Alcohol content: 14%.
Manual harvest: From 19th to 23th September 2011.
Einemaking: Grapes are first de-stemmed and then fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks for 9 days, with constant skin contact. During fermentation pumping over and punching down operations are regularly carried out. These processes ensure both effective and gentle color and aroma extraction. Afterwards the solid parts of the grapes are squashed in a vertical press. This is a gentle process that extracts color and ripe tannins from the grapes skin.
Ageing process: The wine is aged for 24 months in 225-litre American oak barrels.
Bottling date: 15 September 2014.
NUMBER OF BOTTLES: 50,092 (75 cl).
Pairing: Hake cheeks in its own gelatin sauce with Iberian ham ravioli; Wild pig sirloin with red wine; Baked glazed veal cheeks with quince and rosemary infused apple; Red bean stew with braised pork jelly cubes.
Serving suggestions: We recommend decanting the wine 30 minutes before serving. Recommended serving temperature: 16° - 18° C (60° - 65° F) to let the wine breathe and show its full aromatic potential.
Vintage 2012
SPAIN 2012 VINTAGE REPORT
The Control Board has given the 2012 Rioja vintage the official rating of ‘VERY GOOD’. The global rating reflects the heterogeneous nature of the vintage. The drought affected both grape volume and grape quality in some vineyards but also resulted in a significant quantity of wine of extremely high quality, in line with the wines of the two previous vintages, both rated ‘excellent’.
In general, Rioja’s vineyards showed good canopy growth and health throughout the growing season. Phenological development was normal in terms of dates compared to the average of the last few years. Although fertility rates were lower than those of the last two seasons, they were still within normal values for the grape varieties of the D.O.Ca. Rioja. The continuing drought that has affected the Region in the past two years curtailed the production of part of those vineyards located in drylands. In late August grape ripening was normal, with average values for hat time of the year.
After a growing cycle beset by drought, the late September rains had a significant impact, with a very positive effect on ripening, improving final berry balance and raising hopes about final production figures for a large part of Rioja vineyards. Most of the harvested grapes were in excellent health with a great balance between alcohol content and polyphenols, leading to wines of superb quality, with good polyphenolic structure , particularly suited for ageing in barrels and laying down for a long time.
Another reason behind the positive outcome of the 2012 vintage was the professionalism of growers and wineries in scheduling the harvest, given the uneven ripening found among different plots, which required selective harvesting to ensure the best quality was obtained from each vineyard. The total production volume of the 2012 harvest in Rioja came to 354.9 million kg of grapes —one of the lowest yields per hectare of the last two decades (5,710 kg/ha) and a significant drop compared to the 387 million kg harvested the previous year.