Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Reserva 2022 is an elegant and refined expression of the historic Ygay Estate in Rioja Alta. Made from Tempranillo, Mazuelo, Graciano and Garnacha, it combines ripe red fruit, licorice and subtle chocolate notes with polished American oak. Medium-bodied, fleshy and beautifully balanced, the wine offers firm yet refined tannins, fresh acidity and a long, persistent finish.

Decanter | D 95
Published: Jun 6, 2026
Drink: 2026-2042

The 2022 vintage of Murrieta’s Reserva continues on its path to elegance with this blend of 85% Tempranillo 7% Mazuelo, 6% Graciano and 2% Garnacha. American oak adds polish, effortlessly enveloping rose petal, damson and red cherries, and lending just the faintest hint of chocolate. It's fine, precise and, despite many years of development to come, it's immediately approachable. A wine evolving with the times and, quite rightly, one of the flagships of the region.
Closure: Cork
Alcohol: 14.00%
Body: Medium
Oak: Oaked
Grapes: 6% Graciano 7% Mazuelo 85% Tempranillo

The Wine Advocate | RP 94+
Published: Mar 12, 2026
Drink: 2026-2036 

The flagship white-label Reserva-style red 2022 Marqués de Murrieta wants to showcase the personality of the estate through blending places and grapes. In the 2022 vintage, it's 85% Tempranillo, 7% Mazuelo, 6% Graciano and 2% Garnacha. In the warmer and drier year, with two important heat waves that hurried things up, the grapes were hand-harvested between the 7th and 23rd of September, quite early, and they fermented separately in stainless steel. The wine matured in 225-liter American oak barrels for 25 months. Tasting with Vicente Cebrián, he told me he likes 2022 better than 2023 and 2024, which surprised me (let's see what he tells me next year...). It was a gourmand year, with rounder and glossier wines and with more volume, hedonistic and full. The wine is surprisingly balanced and elegant and doesn't show any excesses; the higher percentages of Mazuelo and Graciano provided the extra freshness needed but also had to age for longer in wood, but the oak is perfectly integrated, and the wine is clean and focused. It has contained ripeness and 14% alcohol, keeping a pH of 3.65 and 5.1 grams of acidity. It's a triumph over the adverse conditions of the year. A total of 867,134 bottles, 20,592 magnums and 14,304 half-liter bottles and a handful of larger formats were produced. It was bottled in May 2025. This wine has increased in quality tremendously in the last few years, which is remarkable for the volume they produce.

Marqués de Murrieta is evolving in their enotourism with a small hotel that should be ready for their 175th anniversary in 2027. But the main focus is still their vineyards, where they are going to continue investing. They have 300 hectares in 30 different plots at 320 to 485 meters above sea level on clay, limestone and iron soils in different percentages and expositions. The average age of the vines is 50 years old, and they produce 1.3 million bottles per vintage.

This time, I only tasted four wines; the white was the same as last year, but one of them was the highly anticipated Castillo Ygay from 2016. 2025 was very challenging; they escaped the mildew but had a lot of hail that reduced yields, but they are extremely happy with the quality. 2023 and 2024 were also low-yielding; 2023 had a lot of heat waves, and in 2024, they had a lot of rain. In 2027, they will celebrate their 175th anniversary, and there will be a couple of wines to celebrate that.

Marquesdemurrieta.com

It is a clear example of the elegance, solidity, and consistency that characterize the Marqués de Murrieta winery. The wine showcases the incredible personality of the Ygay Estate and encapsulates everything that happens there during a growing season.

Made with Tempranillo, Mazuelo, Graciano and Garnacha, each variety brings its own personality to come together in a balanced wine after aging in barrels.

Own Vineyard
Located mainly on our Ygay Estate, in Rioja Alta, with a total area of 300 hectares around the winery, mostly clay-limestone soil with an altitude ranging between 320 meters and 485 meters.

Pairing
Lightly smoked hake kokotxa, Pil pil, olive and soy; Galician green chickpea, organic egg yolk and white truffle; line-caught squid, toasted squid juice and redondilla oil.

Tasting notes
This new vintage of Marqués de Murrieta Reserva presents itself with immediate and refined elegance. On the nose, nuances of ripe red fruit and licorice stand out, harmonized with delicate notes of chocolate liqueur. On the palate, it displays a balanced, fleshy, and round profile, with a gentle acidity that integrates naturally with firm tannins, leading to a long and persistent finish.