Castillo Ygay 1942 Reserva Especial

Wine: Castillo Ygay 1942 Reserva Especial

Winery: Marqués de Murrieta (Logroño, La Rioja)
Appellation / Region: D.O.Ca. Rioja
Varietals: 60% Tempranillo, 30% Garnacha, 10% Mazuelo
ABV: [Not specified]
Winemaking

Grapes sourced from the "Pago la Plana" plot, at the highest elevation of the Ygay Estate. The wine fermented in American oak vats for 30 days. It then spent 6 months in large, foundational-era wooden tanks (6,000–7,000 liters) to complete fermentation and stabilize before wood aging. It was matured for 4 years in semi-new 225-liter American oak barrels. Following this initial aging, it was racked into seasoned wooden vats for a further 31 years of maturation—372 months in total. Hand-bottled directly from the casks. It was aged in the bottle for a minimum of 5 years prior to release. The first bottles reached the market in mid-1983 to succeed the 1934 vintage. The cork is replaced every 20 years to ensure optimal bottle development.

 

Tasting Notes
 

Appearance: Reddish-ruby with medium-high depth (capa). It shows extraordinary intensity and concentration; remarkably stable, with almost no distinction between the rim and the core. Brilliant, clean, and luminous, with pomegranate and copper highlights. The rim is likewise copper-toned and very narrow. It is impossible to guess its seventy-plus years of age.

 

Nose: There is no rational explanation for this. If one thing defines this wine, it is its seismic depth and a halo of mystery and darkness that envelops a bottomless pit where everything happens incessantly—like Aladdin’s lamp. Upon opening, it exhales a hint of offal. It might seem pungent, but it is far from it: notes of faisandage, blood, game, feathers, and coagulation. Very much in the "Fleet Street" school of style. Packed with detail, immensely complex and ever-changing, with great weight and breadth. It carries a soft expression of very ripe red fruit throughout, almost sloe-like, along with fragrant notes of withered flowers that meld with the other registers. It takes us on a journey through royal chambers, exotic varnished woods, and smoking rooms (cigar humidors, Habanos, ash), and leather armchairs. Stately and aristocratic, it possesses that air of a truly grand wine found only in aged Castillo Ygay bottlings. A vein of oriental spices emerges—vanilla, clove, gunpowder, black cardamom—alongside a hint of aromatic resin, frankincense bark, and a background perfume of incense and antique shops.

 

Palate: The entry is a "cannon shot" of acidity that cuts through the palate—piercing. It is bursting with life and an energy that overflows the glass. Concentrated and incredibly powerful, featuring firm and spirited (nervioso) tannins that, contrary to what one might expect, do not clash with an overall ensemble of extreme elegance and almost pompous classicism. Murrieta in a state of grace; universal Rioja. Fresh yet supple (graso), with a stony, rock-solid structure. It is full of spicy red fruit, fresh, with telluric depth and an eternal earthy-mineral finish. Long, plenitudinous, spicy, and filled with emotion and youth. An essential and unrepeatable wine. One wonders how such a masterpiece was crafted in the midst of the post-war period. It could not have been a fluke; there is a mountain of "know-how" here, from an era before that term even existed. We would all hope to age like this colossus—without a single wrinkle, as healthy as an apple. This wine is destined for its bicentennial. If only we could be there!

 

Personal Score: 99
Tasting Group Score: 99