Rioja Lover, Part Two: The House that Luciano Built
So, why am I hankering so hard for Marqués de Murrieta’s Capellanía Reserva 2002? I assure you it’s not just because Tamara Lover has tasted it and I haven’t. Most alluring is the fact that it’s also both rare and unusual.
I first came across a reference to Capellanía doing research for my upcoming trip in Wines of Rioja (Mitchell Beazley, 2004), in which author John Radford describes the wine as a “post-modern take on classic [white] Rioja…quite delicious.” I came across it again in a Giles Macdonogh article entitled “Rioja: Evolution” (Decanter, June 2004, pp. 63-68), in which Macdonogh reports that Capellanía’s 9 heactare (22 acre) plot “is due to be halved again, with prices set to double.” Then I looked for it on Wine Searcher and I couldn’t believe my eyes: According to my search, only one store in the U.S. carries it, Hart Davis Hart Wine Co. in Chicago, IL. So, of course I went onto the Hart Davis Hart site to see how much they on hand. Answer: one bottle at $15.
It’s also the only white wine produced by Marqués de Murrieta, Rioja’s oldest winery and still one its best producers. Luciano de Murrieta made his first vintage in 1852 after several years of studying winemaking in Bordeaux, the first Rioja producer to use oak barrels for aging. Today, the bodega is owned and operated by Vicente Dalmau Cebrián Sagarriga, whose father, Don Vicente, Conde de Creixell, bought the winery from the heirs of the original Marqués in 1983.
The young count has been quietly revolutionizing one of Rioja’s most revered institutions in recent years, and doing so in typical Riojano fashion: updating and innovating while simultaneously preserving tradition. He has introduced an ultramodern wine, Dalmau Reserva (85% Tempranillo, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Graciano, with 23 months in French oak), sourced from the oldest vineyard at the venerable Ygay Estate, purchased by Luciano back in 1872. “A thoroughly modern vino del autor,” according to traditionalist champion Gerry Dawes (”Rioja on the Prowl” Wine News Magazine, October/November 2002), “But it preserves the best of Murrieta’s classic style.”
Long associated with ultra-traditional winemaking, Murrieta built its reputation largely on its flagship Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial, which is still in production and has maintained its old world character under winemaker María Vargas, despite necessary updates at the bodega and a slight (two year) shortening of bottle aging before release.
What makes Capellania so unusual is the fact that it is not a work of preservation; rather, it’s a relatively new project that looks to the past for inspiration: long oak aging, slightly oxidative flavors, etc. “An astonishing vote of confidence in traditional-style Rioja,” John Radford writes, “when almost everyone else was moving away from it.”
Don’t try to stop me. Come tomorrow, that one bottle in Chicago gets a one way ticket to NYC. Send me a note; if you live in New York City I just might share it with you.