It's not at all extraordinary for a Spanish wine to obtain the coveted 100 Parker points, but if we're dealing with a dry white wine and not talking about a Sherry, the achievement of the Castillo Ygay Blanco Gran Reserva Especial certainly constitutes a historic milestone. In the words of Luis Gutiérrez, presiding over The Wine Advocate publication in Spain, the Castillo Ygay Blanco 1986 "is one of the best wines I’ve ever tasted". Moreover, in the same tasting referred to by Robert Parker's contributor, a vertical one with wines from 1919 to 1986, the 1919 and 1932 vintages also obtained 100 points. Marqués de Murrieta, one of La Rioja's oldest wineries (nearly 165 years old), is keeping alive an old tradition which dates back to its beginnings, namely the long ageing of white wines which used to mature for over twenty years until acquiring hues of old gold and amber. Ever since then, only the finest red and white vintages have displayed the Ygay label.
The Castillo Ygay Blanco Gran Reserva Especial 1986 is a marvellous white wine, with a reverence for the past shaping its future, made almost exclusively using grapes of the Viura variety, from very old vineyards lying at an altitude of around 400 metres. After 21 years in old 225-litre, American oak barrels and almost six in steel tanks, the Ygay GR Especial reposes for even longer, a further three years in bottle. The Viura grape, occasionally underrated owing to its restrained aromatic intensity, expresses like few others the terroir in which it grows and assumes to perfection the oak's fine points. The wine’s high acidity favours its ageing in bottle and portends a splendid future for it (50 years according to Gutiérrez).
If you figure among those fortunate enough to be uncorking one of the 8,125 bottles of this gem, be ready to find a powerful and elegant wine that's profound, mineral, oily and fresh, with no signs at all of tiredness; a dry, balsamic, spicy wine with hints of white and yellow flower petals, dried fruits and nuts, quince, bitter orange and incense. If it seems shy at first, be patient, it will gradually grow, hour after hour, indeed day after day, until it exhibits the sort of complexity only attained by genuine legendary wines.
In all probability, within a few years this 1986 will have no trouble in competing with other Murrieta historic vintages, but if you don't have enough patience to wait for that time, enjoy it now without any pangs of conscience; you'll not find a new vintage on the market for up to ten years.
