A barrel selection of the most age-worthy wines from the vintage, the 2015 Gran Reserva Limited Edition is a blend of 80% Tempranillo, 9% Graciano, 9% Mazuelo and 2% Garnacha from their 300 hectares of vineyards. The grapes were picked between the September 14 and October 16; the destemmed and lightly crushed grapes were fermented by plot and variety in stainless steel, and the varieties aged separately for 27 months in American barrels. Tasted next to the wines from 2018 and onward, this is a more powerful and concentrated wine, also because of the style of the vintage. The concept is to make a wine with more structure, power and aging potential. It's very classical with notes from the aging in American oak clearly recognizable, very spicy and tasty. The wine is medium to full-bodied and powerful but already developed by some time in bottle; it's spicy, tasty, chalky and still young with potential to age. 62,418 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2018.

The 2014 Gran Reserva Limited Edition, a barrel selection from the Reserva, is a blend of the more age-worthy wines. It's made up of 84% Tempranillo with 9% Graciano, 5% Mazuelo and 2% Garnacha, all from their 300 hectares of estate vineyards. The destemmed and lightly crushed grapes fermented by plot and variety in stainless steel, and the varieties were kept separate throughout the 25 months of élevage in American barriques. When discussing the latest vintages, the 2014 is very curious: the harvest was truly challenging, with lots of rain, ripeness problems and botrytis; so, in principle, it didn't look like a good vintage, and they decided not to keep the red Castillo Ygay. But now, seeing the evolution of this wine, they are kicking themselves. The wine has a clear classical profile, with developed aromas of autumn forest, truffle, smoked cured meat, cigar ash and sweet spices. It's sleek and polished, with resolved, fine-grained tannins and a dry, serious finish. This is surprisingly good and should evolve nicely in bottle. 28,914 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2018.

Along with the 2012 vintage, I also tasted the 2013 Gran Reserva Limited Edition from a much cooler and wetter year. It was produced with 83% Tempranillo, 9% Mazuelo, 5% Garnacha and 3% Graciano fermented in stainless steel and matured in American oak barrels for 30 months. Despite the challenges of the vintage, I liked the freshness this 2013 has kept, and perhaps the extra acidity and lightness gives it a slightly different profile, with less developed aromas and a livelier, lighter palate. It was bottled in April 2016.

Produced with grapes from a dry and low-yielding year, the 2012 Gran Reserva Limited Edition is a blend of 80% Tempranillo, 9% Mazuelo, 8% Garnacha and 3% Graciano selected from a diversity of plots and soils. The destemmed grapes fermented in stainless steel, and the wine matured in American oak barrels for 29 months. 2012 was a warm year, and it shows in the wine. This also feels like a different era, especially when compared with the latest wines from 2012. It has a combination of a classical and more modern/clean profile. It has developed aromas and notes of bottle age. This is a selection of the most age-worthy vineyards from their estate, but it's not the same as Castillo Ygay. It's selected after one year in barrel for the potential the wine shows. 63,846 bottles produced. It was bottled in August 2015.

The 2011 Gran Reserva Limited Edition was cropped from an early and very healthy harvest, for them one of the greatest vintages of recent times, which delivered structured wines apt for long aging. This blend of 91% Tempranillo, 4% Mazuelo, 3% Graciano and 2% Garnacha Tinta certainly had a long élevage, 24 months in 225-liter American oak barrels. I was very pleasantly surprised by this 2011, a vintage that I had in mind as quite ripe, but here the fruit doesn't show any heat, it feels just perfectly ripe. With time in the glass it turns even more classical, with balsamic aromas reminiscent of cigar ash and incense. The palate is round, lush and juicy, with fine-grained tannins and very good balance. This is a barrel selection from the Reserva that they keep longer in barrel and bottle and sell as this Gran Reserva. This is one of the newest Murrieta wines. 50,000 bottles produced. It has been in bottle since September 2014.