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Marques de Murrieta Reserva Rioja 2020

Marques de Murrieta Reserva Rioja 2020
94 WA
Your Price: $26.97
Save $3.02
Available: 136
The 2020 Rioja Reserva, their flagship wine, comes from the 300 hectares of estate vineyards. Here, Tempranillo is the backbone, making up 82% of the blend in the low-yielding vintage of 2019, complemented with 8% Graciano, 7% Mazuelo and 3% Garnacha. It has controlled ripeness at 14% alcohol, with a pH of 3.65 and 5.1 grams of acidity. I loved the aromatics here—floral and elegant, more in the style of the 2018 than the 2019. it's lighter, more elegant, fine-boned and has a silky texture and very fine tannins. Both 2019 and 2020 are very good, but 2020 is more my style.
In September 2023, the Cebrián-Sagarriga family celebrated its 40th anniversary as owners of Marqués de Murrieta, which they bought in 1983. In 1996, Vicente Dalmau Cebrián took the reins of the winery, driving a deep transformation, and he continues today, relentlessly trying to improve every year. It's pretty amazing how the wines feel better each year, like a winery on its way up.
PJ01671
Spain
Rioja
Red
2020
.750L
Muga Unfiltered Reserva Rioja 2021

Muga Unfiltered Reserva Rioja 2021
Your Price: $25.97
Save $4.02
Available: 216
The grapes for the 2021 Reserva (sold as Crianza in Spain), mostly Tempranillo with some Garnacha Tinta, Mazuelo and Graciano, were picked late in a cooler year when they finished the harvest the 20th of October, with plenty of times for the grapes to develop full aromas and flavors and complete ripeness. It fermented destemmed and lightly crushed in oak vats with indigenous yeasts, separating qualities, villages and soils, and matured in 80% French and 20% American oak barrels, 20% of them new, for 24 months, with racking every eight to nine months. It's a textbook example of their style in a very good year, with power, concentration and clout, elegance and freshness. It was a very harmonious year; the cycle was long and the tannins ripened to perfection. It's terrific and more so for the volume they produce (984,000 bottles of it). It was fined with egg whites and bottled in January 2024.
PJ01899
Spain
Rioja
Red
2021
Tempranillo
.750L
Bodegas Y Vinedos Valderiz Ribera del Duero 2020

Bodegas Y Vinedos Valderiz Ribera del Duero 2020
93 JS
OrganicYour Price: $27.97
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Available: 17
93 points James Suckling
Fine oak spices and cocoa powder to the ripe cherries, cassis, black cherries and warm stones. Full-bodied and polished on the palate with tightly wound tannins that seep through the compact fruit. Good balance between tight structure and fruit density. From organically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but better from 2024.
92 points Wine Spectator
Long and creamy, this elegant red is structured by supple tannins and juicy acidity, a fine frame for the appealing range of baked black cherry, fig cake, mocha and sage. Fresh, spiced finish. Drink now through 2028.
PJ01426
Spain
Ribera del Duero
Red
2020
Tinto Fino
.750L
Anza Diego Magana Rioja 2023

Anza Diego Magana Rioja 2023
Your Price: $26.97
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Available: 13
94 points Wine Advocate
I also tasted the 2022 Anza where he added the grapes of one more plot in Laguardia. The wine has his house style of elegance, subtleness and nuance; it's clean and precise and does not show any heat or oak. It's seamless, bright and velvety. Delicious. 23,420 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2023.
Diego Magaña purchased another two plots to make one hectare in the zone of San Martín, planted with 80-year-old vines and in Villalba on stony soils, where the plants are 50 years of age. He's now thinking about organic certification, as he has not used any systemic treatments since 2020, and the vines are herbicide free. He's one of the more precise, new young producers in Rioja (and Bierzo), his wines are elegant and clean in the best modern style you can think of.
• Mostly Tempranillo with some Garnacha, Graciano, Mazuelo, Viura and Malvasía Riojana
• 30 to 50+-year-old bushvines in pure limestone soils
• Fermented with indigenous yeast in open-top wood vats with whole bunches as vintage allows
• Raised for about a year in one 4,000L tina and 225L barrels, all used
PJ00495
Spain
Rioja
Red
2023
.750L
Lopez de Heredia Vina Cubillo Crianza Rioja 2017

Lopez de Heredia Vina Cubillo Crianza Rioja 2017
93 WA
Your Price: $28.97
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Available: 63
The super bargain of the portfolio has to be the red 2017 Viña Cubillo Tinto Crianza, which this year shows more development and faster aging, with more tertiary notes than the other reds from 2013 and 2014 that I tasted next to it. The frost of April 2017 killed 100% of the vegetal mass at Cubillo, and the grapes they picked were exclusively from the second generation, therefore fruit that ripened in a much shorter cycle, as the harvest was also earlier. It has notes of damp earth, mushrooms, truffles and forest floor, dry leaves and decayed flowers and herbs. It has a polished palate and is medium-bodied, with mostly resolved tannins, and it feels a little lighter. But it's still worth it. It was produced with a blend of 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and 5% each Graciano and Mazuelo from vines averaging 53 years of age. It fermented in their old oak vats and matured in used American oak barrels for three+ years. It has 13.5% alcohol, a 3.0 pH and 6.5 grams of acidity. 90,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2023.
PJ01991
Spain
Rioja
Red
2017
.750L
Sierra Cantabria Reserva Rioja 2017

Sierra Cantabria Reserva Rioja 2017
92 WA
Your Price: $26.97
Save $5.02
Available: 74
The 2017 Reserva comes from the frost year when they lost a great part of the grapes. The cycle was very short and the summer was warm, and it was one of their earlier harvests. The wine comes in at a moderate 14% alcohol and feels very approachable, with grip and some tannins that would welcome food. They still produced 40,000 bottles, because there was less Crianza.
92 points Wine Spectator
Fragrant hints of anise, iron and mountain herbs add depth to the focused core of ripe black cherry and black raspberry fruit. Sculpted tannins form a fine frame for this fluid, well-knit red, firming the lingering finish. Drink now through 2032.
PJ02085
Spain
Rioja
Red
2017
Tempranillo
.750L