Marqués de Murrieta

Luciano de Murrieta y Garcia-Lemoine established Marqués de Murrieta in 1852. Applying techniques learned in Bordeaux, he made what the winery calls the first Rioja wine in 1852 and exported that vintage to countries such as Mexico and Cuba; Decanter credits Marqués de Murrieta as the first Rioja estate to export its wines. He bought the Ygay vineyard and built the castle of the same name. The estate was still owned by the Murrieta family in 1925. In 1983 it passed to Vicente Cebrián (d. 1996), an entrepreneur and winery owner from Galicia, and the Cebrián-Sagarriga family has led it since 1983. In 1996 his son, Vicente Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga, took over the estate.

• Wine Spectator described Marqués de Murrieta in 2020 as a leader in using French techniques to develop greater complexity and longevity from Tempranillo
• By 2020, Vicente Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga had spent nearly a quarter of a century and more than $30 million restoring and improving the property
• His sister, Cristina, handles financial and administrative duties (as of 2020)
• The former King of Spain Juan Carlos I often chose Ygay wines to mark major events, and the 1925 Gran Reserva Especial was selected on the day he passed the crown to his son Felipe VI

Ygay Castle, built according to the concept of the French châteaux, underwent a restoration project of more than eight years that ended in 2015. The Government of La Rioja declared the winery a museum in 2019, for the building's historical significance, heritage and architecture. The castle houses valuable documentation and unique items, as well as what the winery calls one of the most extensive private collections of historic bottles in the world. A major renovation project was completed in 2021 with the inauguration of a new production area, a complex of buildings covering more than 25,000 square metres next to Ygay Castle, surrounded by more than 50,000 square metres of gardens.

• Castle restoration: more than eight years, ending in 2015
• Declared a museum by the Government of La Rioja in 2019
• New production complex inaugurated in 2021: more than 25,000 square metres beside the castle
• Casa Murrieta, the winery's Madrid headquarters on the Paseo de la Castellana, includes a 1,000 m² private space designed under the direction of interior designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán

The wines are born in Finca Ygay, a 300-hectare vineyard in the south of Rioja Alta that surrounds the winery and gives it exhaustive control over quality from the very beginning. Soils are mainly calcareous-clay and altitude ranges from 320 to 485 metres. Of the 30 pagos (vineyard plots) that make up Finca Ygay, four supply the grapes for Castillo Ygay, Capellanía, Dalmau and Primer Rosé. Grapes for the Reserva are mostly sourced from the Ygay Estate.

• La Plana: 40 hectares, planted in 1950, at 485 metres in the highest area of the estate; source of Castillo Ygay
• Capellanía: 6 hectares, planted in 1945, mainly calcareous-clay, on a plateau at 485 metres; source of Capellanía and of Castillo Ygay Blanco Gran Reserva Especial 1986
• Canajas: 9 hectares, planted in 1950, at 465 metres, with mainly iron-clay soil and a stony topsoil; source of Dalmau
• Lucas: 5 hectares, planted in 1985, at 350 metres, on calcareous-clay with alluvial boulder stones; source of Primer Rosé

Castillo Ygay is harvested by hand into small crates, and its grape varieties ferment separately in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. For the 2012 vintage the Tempranillo was aged 34 months in 225-litre American oak barrels and the Mazuelo 34 months in 225-litre French oak barrels, after which the blend spent 20 months in a concrete tank before bottling. As of 2020, Castillo Ygay was matured for a decade in the winery cellar before release. Dalmau follows a different path: each variety ferments in 13,900-litre Allier French oak vats, and the wine spends 17 months in Allier French oak barrels and 13 months in concrete vats. The winery calls Dalmau its most expressive and modern-style wine and Capellanía a white wine with a red wine soul. Wine Spectator called Castillo Ygay 2010 a lovely example of the traditional style.

• Castillo Ygay 2012: 81% Tempranillo and 19% Mazuelo, bottled in May 2019
• At Canajas, crop-thinning after veraison limits production to up to 1 kg per vine for Dalmau
• Capellanía 2020 was fermented in a 9,400-litre concrete vat at 10°C, then aged 20 months in 225-litre Allier French oak barrels and 15 months in concrete vats
• Primer Rosé is fermented in a concrete tank at 10°C, avoiding malolactic fermentation, and rests on its fine lees for 6 months

The winery's Rioja range comprises Marqués de Murrieta Reserva, Marqués de Murrieta Gran Reserva, Castillo Ygay, Castillo Ygay Blanco Gran Reserva Especial 1986, Dalmau, Capellanía and Primer Rosé. The Reserva, which the winery calls its ambassador to the world, blends Tempranillo, Mazuelo, Graciano and Garnacha and is aged 25 months in 225-litre American oak barrels. The Gran Reserva is produced only from selected vintages; the 2016 is 82% Tempranillo, 9% Garnacha, 7% Mazuelo and 2% Graciano, aged 26 months in 225-litre American oak barrels. Castillo Ygay Blanco Gran Reserva Especial 1986, 97% Viura and 3% Malvasía from the Capellanía vineyard, was aged 252 months in American oak barrels and 67 months in concrete tanks before bottling on 29 January 2014. Primer Rosé, born in 2015, is made exclusively with Mazuelo.

• Marqués de Murrieta Reserva 2022: 85% Tempranillo, 7% Mazuelo, 6% Graciano, 2% Garnacha
• Dalmau: 82% Tempranillo, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Graciano (release listed as of September 2026)
• Capellanía: 100% Viura from 70-year-old vines
• Castillo Ygay Blanco Gran Reserva Especial 1986: 8,125 bottles produced

Wine Spectator named Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial 2010 its Wine of the Year for 2020, with a score of 96 points, a price of $139 and 7,500 cases made, and wrote that "Murrieta once again stands at the head of the class in Rioja." Decanter's Stephen Brook profiled the Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial 1925 as a Wine Legend, noting that the Ygay wines became renowned for their elegance and longevity. That 1925 was bottled in 1964 and came onto the market in 1973.

• Wine Spectator Wine of the Year 2020: Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial 2010, 96 points
• The 1917 Gran Reserva Especial spent 45 years in barrel
• The 1925 spent five years in fairly new American oak barrels and a further 32 years in older barrels

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/sobre-nosotros-marques-de-murrieta, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/casa-murrieta, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/castillo-ygay-tinto-gran-reserva-especial, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/castillo-ygay-blanco-gran-reserva-especial-1986, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/dalmau-reserva, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/capellania-reserva, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/marques-de-murrieta-gran-reserva, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/marques-de-murrieta-reserva, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/primer-rose, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/pages/enoturismo, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/blogs/noticias/museo_marques_de_murrieta, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/blogs/blog/finca-ygay-el-pilar-de-nuestros-vinos, https://marquesdemurrieta.com/en/blogs/blog/ix-capitulo-de-murrieta-academy-vinos-historicos-castillo-ygay-gran-reserva-especial. Secondary sources: https://top100.winespectator.com/2020/wine/1-marques-de-murrieta/, https://www.decanter.com/learn/wine-legend-marques-de-murrieta-castillo-ygay-gran-reserva-especial-1925-316747/. Last verified 2026-10-12. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.