SLP: You took over the winery in 1983 after the death of your father. You hold the titles of Conde de Creixell and Barón de la Pobadilla and are named Vicente Cebrían-Sagarriga, just like your father?
VD C-S: Yes, but I have two names, Vicente Dalmau Cebrían-Sagarriga. My father’s mother, my grandmother, was born in Galicia, in Rías Baixas. Her family had a very nice estate there, called Pazo de Barrantes, with an old palace dating from 1511. It’s in my family since then. Now we make our Albariño there, in a beautiful cellar that was renovated in 2019. From there, , my father decided in 1983 to buy Marqués de Murrieta, south of Rioja Alta, the most important winery in Rioja and, with 300 hectares, the largest.
That was very important for the family. My father decided to move to Rioja, while I was living in Madrid at the time. Then we moved to the countryside, next to the winery. I was 16 years old, my whole life since then is next to wine, to vineyards and this wonderful brands Marqués de Murrieta and Ygay, but also the Albariño from Pazo Barrantes. My father passed away too early in 1996 at the age of 47, when I was 25. Since then, I’ve been looking after both estates and concentrating all my strength in wine.
The beginnings
Let’s take another step back. When your father decided to buy Murrieta in 1983, did he also do so with an eye to the open markets [after Spain’s rapprochement with the EC, SLP] and increasing exports?
At that time, Marqués de Murrieta was selling wine outside Spain. The first wine, that the winery sold outside Spain was 1852, to Mexico and Cuba. Marqués de Murrieta was always next to exports, but at the time my father thought it would be possible to sell a lot of wine outside Spain.
Today we have an export quota of between 65 and 70 per cent, and we touched 100 countries. With Pazo Barrantes and Murrieta, we only produce a small number of bottles, but we look for the best importers in each country and give them a small allocation of the wines we produce.
What was the situation of Bodegas Marqués de Murrieta in 1983 when you bought it?
Not good. The estate belonged to the third generation of the Murrieta family and they had not invested in the winery for years. The employees were qualified, there were good winwmakers. But the equipment was old and no money had been spent on marketing and sales. The situation was quite weak.
Changing the perspective
At this time, grapes were also bought?
Murrieta was actually always an estate where the grapes came from its own vineyards. When my father bought the estate, there were 184 hectares under vines. I can’t remember whether something was bought in at the time. In any case, now we have already 300 hectares. We have increased the volumes we produce. But everything is concentrated in Ygay [the historic estate near Logrono, SLP]. We have three special vineyards there: the 6-hectare Capellanía plot for our white Rioja, then the 9-hectare Canajas, where Tempranillo, Graciano and Cabernet Sauvignon are planted for the Dalmau. And finally, in the upper part of the estate, at 500 metres altitude, La Plana, which supplies the grapes for the Ygay. All other grapes from the estate are used for the Marqués de Murrieta.
Castillo de Ygay was initially modelled on the château system in Bordeaux, so the wine was a cuvée of the best plots. Are you now approaching the Viñedos Singulares principle?
No, Ygay has always been a ‘Viñedo Singular’, a very special one. But I have decided not to enter the Viñedos Singulares systen, we don’t need to.
But you are now taking a more Burgundian approach ..
Absolutely. For 25 or 30 years, we have been concentrating on the different plots at the winery, we select each vineyard for one wine. We really changed, from a wine which comes from an Estate to different wines which come from different parcels of one estate.
Transformation of Ygay
When María Vargas became cellar master at Murrieta in 1996, the style of Ygay changed.
The style of Ygay is very distinctive. I decided with my father to update this style, to move forward but not to change the identity. We wanted to try to create an Ygay that is closer to the new generation, which demands more fruit and a greater balance between the wood and the fruit. What I did was first of all to select the plot. One for Ygay and two grape varieties: Tempranillo and Mazuelo. Then I decided to keep fermentation in oak, but we moved to French barrels. And in terms of ageing, we went from very old barrels, which were completely lined with tartaric acid, to younger barrels, French for the Mazuelo and American for the Tempranillo. The time spent in the barrel is shorter, but instead of maturing for a long time without contact with oxygen [due to the isolating layer of tartaric acid inside the barrels, SP], the wine absorbs more oxygen which comes through the wood during this time.
We wanted to try to create an Ygay that is closer to the new generation, which demands more fruit and a greater balance between the wood and the fruit.
Vicente Dalmau Cebrían-Sagarriga
After three or four years in wood, the new Ygays that we are doing now are spend two years in concrete. Why concrete? Because we are looking for complexity, elegance and more minerality. In the end, Ygay is a blend of elegance and complexity, and we thought that the wine could gain a lot of elegance through concrete. When we taste old and new Ygays against each other, the identity of the wines is the same, but there are some changes. The new wines are more fruit-driven, the balance between wood and fruit is better. And the acidity is higher, because Mazuelo means acidity.
Grape varieties against climate change
The Mazuelo has taken on a whole new importance for you.
We planted a lot of Mazuelo a long time ago, but also more Graciano. And this is very important for our wines, because both grapes bring freshness, acidity, life and a future, which is why we have increased the proportion of Mazuelo and Graciano in all our wines. They are our remedy for climate change because we are creating wines with much more freshness and which could last more time in bottle. And finally, we have increased the ageing time of the wines in the bottle, i.e. the time they spend in the winery after bottling. All Ygays currently spend five years in the bottle in minimum before being released on the market.
This is the movement we made at Ygay. But we still produce low volumes, We just release Ygay in excellent vintages. In fact, we first produce a possible Ygay every year, but only in the second year in the barrel do we decide if we continue building the wine or not. It’s not just about the quality, but about the style. If the wine has enough soul and elegance, is this Ygay? Only if we say yes, it will stay in the barrel, then go into cement and finally into the bottle. Otherwise, we blend it with Marquez de Murrieta before its bottling, which then accounts for a good 10 per cent. Today we are presenting the 2012 vintage. There will be no Ygay from 2013, 2014 and 2015, only again in 2016.
Dalmau
But you have also created a completely new wine?
When my father passed away, I wanted to make a big revolution in the wine. But I knew that I would need at least 15 years for this type of wine. Not, as I said, to change the concept, but to update it. That’s why I created Dalmau. I was very young at the time and wanted to show to the market that I was capable of running Marqués de Murrieta successfully. But beside that, I created a new concept for a wine that could be released to the market earlier. Also, to send a message that something is changing, even in a classic winery like Murrieta.
This concept remained within the Rioja framework, but was intended to be international, with more power and alcohol. And for the first time in Murrieta’s history, I bought new oak. And instead of ageing for seven or eight years, I moved to 18 to 24 months, with malolactic fermentation also taking place in the barrel. That was like a shock, a revolution. And I put my name on the wine: Dalmau. And that was supposed to be the story: There’s a young guy after the death of his father, who now sells his very own wine. After that we released the new white Rioja, Cappellanía, and the new wines of Murrieta and Ygay. So began the new era of the first winery of Rioja.
Ygay Blanco
The white Ygay, on the other hand, will remain the pillar of traditionalism?
That was the challenge. We are going to update many things, but at the same time we have to show ourselves and the market that we can make an old style, traditional, white Ygay in the old style, and we did it.
And you had some success ….
Exactly, we had incredible success with the 1986. All experts in the world were really happy with the wine. Time and again, it received 100-point ratings, not only in ‘Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate’. This was not only important for us, but for the whole of Spain – the first white wine from Spain to receive 100 points. And that from Rioja, which is actually known for its red wines. Well, today there are some wineries that produce white Rioja, but we have been producing white wines since the beginning. But the Ygay Blanco is unique wine. It ages for more than 20 years in old barrels of American oak. Then it spent a good eight years in concrete before being bottled in 2014 and released on the market at the end of 2016. When you taste the wine, it’s like a shock. It is so powerful and at the same time so elegant. It’s really young and at the same time very mature. It’s a wine of contrasts, and that makes it completely unique in the world.
Pazo Barrantes
What makes your wines from Galicia stand out?
I think that now all our wines, apart from the quality, have something that makes them unique, that is their personality, their soul. I would never say that our wines are the best of Rioja, or Spain or in the world. But I can tell you that our wines are unique, and that is one of the principles of Marqués de Murrieta. Pazo Barrantes is no different. At the moment, we are the only winery in Rías Baixas that releases wines with a minimum of five years of ageing. This is unique, all the other wineries in Rías Baixas – there are now 185 – are selling a young Albariño. Wines that come onto the market as early as December or January. We only release after four to five years, after one year in the tank and ageing in acacia barrels and at least two, two and a half years in the bottle.
We want structured, serious wines. Because I think Albariño is one of the top grape varieties in the world. It needs time, you have to treat in a different way, and not force the Albariño. In addition to the Pazo Barrantes, we also produce La Comtesse. It ferments for three months in French 3000-litre barrels and then matures in the same vats on the lees for 14 months, followed by 18 months in concrete and three years in bottle before I send it to you. Its grapes come from a small plot called Cacheiro of 1.4 hectares, the estate’s oldest parcel from 1965. We are offering unique wines. You can hate them, you can love them. But I’m happy that I don’t just create high-quality, but special wines.
The company philosophy
Marqués de Murrieta and Pazo de Barrantes are entirely owned by your family. Is it difficult to remain independent today in the age of conglomerates and corporate groups?
It’s what I know, it’s what I like … I think at a project like Murrieta, you can’t combine the pressure of selling with the pressure of doing the best wine. You simply can’t do both things 100 per cent at the same time. The commitment of me and my family is not about the turnover, but about a concept of life, about romance, if you like. I am responsible for a part of wine culture, for a part of Spanish wine history. That’s why I will never change the identity and philosophy of Ygay wines. Being inside of a big group and trying to spoil a brand like Ygay or Murrieta in order to sell more bottles is not my vision. My vision is a long-term one, next to excellence, next to high quality and personality! So, for Murrieta, it’s better to be in the hand of a family.
The interview and the subsequent menu and tasting (including wines from Castillo Ygay from the 2012, 2011 and 1980 vintages (in the magnum) and Ygay Blanco 1986) took place on 8 May 2024 in the Berlin restaurant Verōnika. The text was edited by Stefan Pegatzky.
Images rights
Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel Images
