Enologist: Javier Martínez de Salinas

D.O.C. Rioja       

Grapes: 90% Tempranillo,  10% Garnacha

Ageing:
The Grand Reserve was bottled in July 2006 from a coupage of 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano grapes. These wines were aged in the cask (50% in American oak and 50% in French oak casks) for 27 months, spending the first 9 months in new casks and the remainder of the period in 3-year-old casks.

Tasting Notes:
Medium-layer cherry red, with a gradual color change towards the edge. Intense, open and long-lasting. Without swirling, the wine gives off aromas of ginger, sun-dried hay, sun-dried apricots and peaches, and black-skinned berries. Swirling brings out fresher hints of red berries, with dairy notes. On the attack the wine is fresh, with tasty tannins and cocoa and orange peel flavors. Complex, pleasant and fresh. Lingering, elegant aftertaste. Importers Notes

Additional Information

The Bodega dates back to the second half of the 19th century, when Francisco Javier Solano y Eulate, the 'Marquis de la Solana' and owner of a large area of vineyards in Villabuena, decided, on the advice of the famous oenologist from Bordeaux, Msr. Pineau, to begin making and aging his wines according to methods imported from Médoc and to start selling them in bottles, after aging, under the label 'Marqués de la Solana'.

Following the enlargement of the bodega’s underground ‘calados’ or caves, the importation of the first wine-making machinery and the introduction of oak casks from Bordeaux, the wines started to win major awards such as the silver medal at the Logroño Exhibition in 1898 and the gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona in 1929.

On the death of the Marquis, his property was inherited by his daughters, Mª Teresa and María Solano (grandmother of the current owners), who changed the name of the bodega to Bodegas de Crianza S.M.S. (the abbreviation of the family surnames).

Nowadays, the bodega, which changed its name once again in 1996 to Viñedos y Bodegas de la Marquesa, continues to be a family firm and is owned by Juan Pablo de Simón and his brothers, while the next generation, Pablo and Jaime de Simón (Juan Pablo’s sons) are preparing to take over the running of the company in the future.