Marqués de Murrieta Resrva 2022Marqués de Murrieta Resrva 2022

Marqués de Murrieta Reserva 2022 is the flagship red from the iconic Spanish winery Bodegas Marqués de Murrieta, based at the famous Finca Ygay in Rioja Alta. Released in mid-2026, this vintage stands out for its great precision, balance and distinctly elegant profile, the result of a hot, dry growing season that called for an early harvest.

Tim Atkin (95 pts)
Marqués de Murrieta's largest-volume wine, at around 850,000 bottles, is a tribute to María Vargas's blending skills, combining Tempranillo with 7% Mazuelo, 6% Graciano and 2% Garnacha Tinta. Aromatic, balanced and confident in its identity, it has a structure shaped by perfumed notes from ageing in American oak, a third of it new. It shows deep colour, great concentration, tannins with ageing potential, and flavours of blackberry and Asian spices with a subtle balsamic touch. Drink 2027–2035.

The Wine Advocate (94+ pts)
The 2022 Marqués de Murrieta Reserva, the house's emblematic white-label red, seeks to express the personality of the estate by blending different plots and varieties. In 2022 the blend is 85% Tempranillo, 7% Mazuelo, 6% Graciano and 2% Garnacha. In a hotter, drier year marked by two major heatwaves that sped up ripening, the grapes were hand-picked between 7 and 23 September, relatively early. Fermentation took place separately in stainless steel tanks, followed by 25 months in 225-litre American oak barrels.

During a tasting with Vicente Cebrián, he said he preferred the 2022 to the 2023 and 2024, which surprised me — we'll see what he tells me next year. It was a year of more generous, enveloping wines, with more volume on the palate and a round, bright texture, giving a full, hedonistic profile.

Surprisingly balanced and elegant, this wine shows no excess. The higher proportions of Mazuelo and Graciano brought the extra freshness it needed, though they also called for longer oak ageing. Even so, the oak is perfectly integrated, giving a clean, defined and harmonious whole.

Fruit ripeness is well controlled, and the wine has 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.65 and acidity of 5.1 grams per litre. A real triumph given the difficult conditions of the vintage.

Production totalled 867,134 bottles, 20,592 magnums, 14,304 half-litre bottles and a few larger formats. The wine was bottled in May 2025.

The quality of this wine has improved remarkably in recent years, which is particularly impressive given the size of its production.