Rioja Gran Reserva Marques de Murrieta 2015

Marques de Murrieta Rioja Gran Reserva is a heavenly, generous wine with an abundance of dark red fruit, beautifully intermingled with copious amounts of complex oak flavours. There is a bit of a Christmas vibe going on here with sweet spice notes, dried fruits and dark cake flavours. The fruit is bright with an abundance of cherry and red currants which sit perfectly with the herbs, spice and soft vanilla. The wine spends 25 months in American oak before being released.

Marques de Murrieta was the first estate to establish the concept of a “Chateau” in the iconic La Rioja region of Spain. Luciano Murrieta produced his first wine in 1852 after travelling to Bordeaux where he was heavily influenced by the area’s structure and wine-making techniques. At the time, the idea of building a castle or chateau with the vineyards around it was unheard of in Spain, but by the 1870s he had his castle and surrounding 300 hectares of vineyards. The estate was purchased in 1983 by the Cebrian-Sagarriga family, who meticulously rebuilt the castle between 2007 and 2014 and turned it into what can only be described as a modern-day Bond villain’s lair, complete with restaurant, museum, underground cellar network and one of the finest lounges in Europe.