Marques de Murrieta Rioja Blanco Reserva Capellania 2020 750ml

#24 in Top 100 World Wines, 2025. A fabulous old-vine viura, showing aromas of meringue, pine nuts and stones with subtle macadamia, precise white fruit and cream. Not fruity but really gastronomic. Clear, nuanced and bright, this has beautiful concentration on the almost full-bodied palate. Very long and textural. Fresh with just medium acidity. The finish lasts a minute with a nutty, oily feel reminiscent of jamon Iberico. Probably the best ever. Drink now or hold for the next 15-plus years.

The 2020 Capellania is named for the vineyard in which the 100% Viura grapes are grown, a site planted in 1945 in calcareous-clay soils at the highest point of the winery’s Ygay Estate. Fermented in large concrete vat after a short skin contact, the goal is aromatic complexity, and this white exudes that with ease. With plenty of medium-bodied volume and sublime texture, it’s a gastronomic wine of perfect balance that’s light on its feet and full of freshness with length and breadth. The color is bright yet doesn’t show its 20 months in larger French oak (followed by 15 months in concrete), an exquisitely refined white that should age for years. Drink now through 2035.

I tasted again the white 2020 Capellanía, because it had not been released and is coming out now. It was produced with the Viura from the vineyard that gives the wine its name, six hectares planted in 1945 at the highest altitude of the Ygay estate. The grapes were picked the 22nd and 23rd of September, and the juice fermented in concrete without malolactic, then the wine matured in used French oak barrels for 20 months and a further 15 months in concrete, as they are increasing the time in concrete and also want to keep the bottles for a little longer. It's ripe at 14% alcohol, with a low pH of 3.08. The wine has not moved much since I tasted it last year, which speaks about the aging pace and the expected longevity of the wine. It's pale and harmonious, complex and expressive, open and aromatic, with notes of white flowers and fruit. It keeps the poise in a more challenging year. This new era, when they ferment in concrete and age the wine in used barriques and then age it for a long time in concrete, has resulted in a much more elegant white with better integration of the wood; it's more direct and profound, elegant and sophisticated. 35,420 bottles and 1,204 magnums produced. It was bottled in December 2024.

From the Capellanía vineyard within the Ygay estate, the 2020 Capellanía (100% Viura, Rioja Alta) was aged for 20 months in barrel followed by time in tank. Since my last tasting, an additional year in bottle has brought greater complexity to the nose, where soft fennel, field herbs and Mediterranean nuances now sit alongside preserved fruit notes reminiscent of poached pear and white flowers. Broad and lightly chalky on the palate, it feels more enveloping and expressive than before. Clearly, the wine continues to grow in bottle, confirming the promising trajectory already evident earlier.

Sleek acidity is a refreshing backbone for this graceful white, which offers flavors of poached pear, melon rind, preserved lemon, vanilla and anise, all underscored by a racy streak of mineral-laced petrol and saline. Drink now through 2036. 2,951 cases made, 112 cases imported.