Bodegas Muriel Gran Reserva 2012
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James
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Spectator
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
Red ruby color with a distinctive brick rim. Deep and intense nose, showing vanilla notes, coffee, spices, and ripe red fruit. Dry leaves, leather and nutty notes are from the bottles aging period. On the palate, the wine is balanced and silky. Exceptionally pleasant, this wine has a persistent yet elegant aftertaste. Its complex and intense personality will make it evolve in a very positive way over the next years.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Intense aromas of figs, dried cherries, toasted coconut, caramel, mushrooms and sweet herbs. It’s medium-bodied with firm, sleek tannins and fresh acidity. Rich array of spice and dried fruit, with persistent freshness.
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Wine Spectator
This medium-bodied red features fragrant tar, leather and iron notes, which make for a savory skein winding through flavors of baked black cherry, mocha and licorice. Serves up well-integrated, fine-grained tannins, with a tang of orange peel acidity lending freshness.
Other Vintages
2014-
James
Suckling
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James
Suckling
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Tasting
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James
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Enthusiast -
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Spectator
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James
Suckling
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Robert
Parker
Bodegas Muriel was founded in 1982, when Julian Murua revived his father's (Jose Murua) winery, which dates back to 1926 in the heart of the Rioja Alavesa (one of the three sub-regions that make up Spain's Rioja appellation). The cellars are in the quaint, historic village of Elciego, which is renowned for being surrounded by some of the best "terrior" in Rioja.
The name "Muriel" comes from the combination of the family name (Murua) and the name of the town itself (Elciego). Today, Julian and his son Javier run the winery with the mission to meld the long-held winemaking traditions of the region with new technologies and techniques in order to make wines that express the "best qualities" of the grapes coming from these fertile Riojan vineyards.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.