Muga Reserva Rioja 2020  £24.26

MUGA RIOJA RESERVA 

Bodegas Muga is a family business founded by Isaac Muga and Aurora Caño in 1932, which is located in the historic Barrio de La Estación (Station Quarter) of Haro.  With an area of around 25,000 square metres, it is home to both the most traditional winemaking methods and the latest cutting-edge techniques.

While the property produces many levels of wine including super-premiums such as Aro, the 'Reserva' is viewed as the flagship wine for the Bodega due to its quality and availability.  Created using a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha tinta, Mazuelo and Graciano grown on Calcareous clay soil.

Harvested by hand and fermentation with indigenous yeast in wooden vats.  Aged for 24 months in casks made from selected oak at their own in-house cooperage.  The wood is sourced in a proportion of 80% French oak and 20% oak from America.  Before bottling the wine is fined using fresh egg whites. It is then left to refine in bottle for a minimum of 12 months before release for sale.

This 2019 reserva wine has a bright, ruby-red colour, with medium depth and a garnet-tinged rim. On the nose. it proves to be a wine which is complex in aroma, in which primary aromas of fruit such as blueberries are enhanced by spicy nuances. On the palate, it is long, balanced and elegant, with perfectly integrated acidity and smooth tannins. The finish is very long and fruity. Perfect to be drunk now but thanks to its great balance and structure it can be kept in the bottle for several more years.

This is the wine to accompany you anywhere, perfect to enjoy with baked fish, meat, rice dishes and good after-dinner conversation.

94 points Robert Parker

The 2019 Reserva, sold as Crianza in Spain, comes from a dry and warm year with low yields and concentrated wines. The grapes from the Haro zone, the four from Rioja, Tempranillo, Garnacha Tinta, Mazuelo and Graciano fermented destemmed and lightly crushed in oak vats with indigenous yeasts, and 80% of the volume matured in French oak and the rest in Centro European and American oak, 20% of them new, for 22 months, during which time the wine was racked every eight to nine months. This is serious and young but balanced, nuanced and complex. They are shortening the time in oak, as they feel they have better and younger barrels and think the wines need less time in oak and more time in bottle. This is very Muga, very Rioja and very good. They produced an impressive 960,000 bottles and 18,000 magnums of this. There is only one master blend that is bottled at different times. I tasted a bottle that was filled in April 2022 (because of the lack of availability of bottles!). Luis Gutiérrez

92 Points 'Penin Guide'