Marqués de Murrieta "La Comtesse" 2018

If Rioja has a bodega that can rival the looks of a grand Bordeaux château, it’s surely Murrieta. Turn off the busy main road from Logroño to Zaragoza and you’ll stumble across their legendary estate. Built in 1872 and lovingly restored in 2013, Murrieta makes wines as stylish as their façade, combining traditional and contemporary techniques. Murrieta made its first wines in 1852, but its modern success dates back to 1982 when it planted new vineyards and began modernising the old cellars. Murrieta produces some of the finest and most celebrated wines in Spain, led by the occasional Castillo Ygay bottlings (both red and white), Dalmau (one of the few local wines to feature Cabernet Sauvignon) and the fantastic white Rioja Capellanía. The wine production has been led by the über-talented María Vargas for over twenty years. For Tim Atkin Rioja's top 'First Growth'.