At Marqués de Murrieta they didn't follow general trends and only bottled the top of the range wines when they thought were exceptional, which made them skip some famous vintages like 1947, 1981 and 1982. In the 1980s, they bottled 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1989. The 1985 Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial comes from a year that they considered better at the Ygay estate than the average of Rioja and decided to produce this red with 76% Tempranillo, 13% Mazuelo, 8% Garnacha Tinta and 3% Graciano. It matured in barrel for some 30 months and was bottled in January 1989 with 12.8% alcohol, 7.2 grams of acidity and a low 0.52 grams of volatile acidity, possibly given the very short élevage in barrel (at least compared with some older vintages). It seems like there was a stylistic change from the 1980 vintage to this one; this is more metallic and quite light on the palate.