Muga Blanco Rioja 2021  £16.78

MUGA BLANCO 

In Muga, they always use the finest materials and are open to new techniques that provide greater quality without losing authenticity. To produce each of their wines, they continue opting for traditional procedures:Through the natural process of fining, they eliminate the suspended particles that appear in the wine.They carry out the decanting by the traditional method of gravity. They are also the only cellar in Spain with a master cooper and three in-house barrel-makers.

After macerating in the press for around 8 hours, this white wine ferments in new, Frenchoak casks. After fermentation it is left on its lees for a further 3 months until ready for bottling.

A lemon-yellow coloured wine with green glints which reveal its youth. On the nose we find a clean, floral wine which is reminiscent of almond blossom, with citrus notes of American lime and faint underlying toasted nuances. On the palate the wine is fresh with very good acidity and a long finish, wrapping the mouth with reminders of white-fleshed Golden Delicious apples. Perfect match for vegetable dishes, rice, fish and shellfish, tapas.

Rating (88 - 90)

Reviewed by Luis Gutiérrez

Source The Wine Advocate

"Yields for the 2017 Muga Blanco were lower, and there will be some 140,000 bottles (compared with 200,000 in the previous year) of this wine, which I tasted unbottled. The white varieties recovered better from the frost than the reds, and they behaved better in a year with a shorter vegetative cycle; however, they got extremely low yields of Maturana Blanca. The wine has good ripeness (13.2% to 13.4% alcohol) without any herbal notes. It's a bit sharp right now, but it's still a little early, as it will be kept with the lees for a further two months, and it should gain in volume during that time. The white and rosé are always sourced from higher-altitude, cooler zones (especially in the Najerilla), so these wines are always fresh. They might produce that quantity because they purchased some grapes from old vines, even though they were more expensive, to try to keep the volume."