A life-changing elixir

published 11 March 2014

2005 Castillo Ygay, Marqus de Murrieta, Tinto Gran Reserva Especial Early Release, Rioja, Spain (£60-£65, Berry Bros & Rudd, 0800-280 2440, www.bbr.com; Whole Foods Market, 020-7368 4500; Handford Wines, 020-7589 6113; Fortnum & Mason, 0845-300 1707; Selfridges, 0800-123400).

I don't much like what I call old-fashioned Rioja'. That stench of decay coupled with medicinal-tinged barrels leaching out the bright berry fruit notes from the once livid tempranillo grapes and transforming the wine into a vinous Benylin is a flavour to which I will never become accustomed.

Not all historic producers, though, have this fetid scent in their wines. The great Marqus de Murrieta launched this epic wine late last year, and here is my trumpet voluntary alerting you to its greatness.

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Coming from a single vineyard called La Plana, it is one of the most monumental wines I have ever tasted. Youthful, with fit tannins and lashings of American oak (30 months!), this is a mighty and imposing wine and the fruit is so pure and captivating that my throat tightened and I immediately felt I was in the presence of a life-changing elixir.

I won't give you my score for this leviathan, it's too vulgar to discuss such an enormous number, but I urge you to take advantage of the early release of this mythical creation.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.