Muga Rioja Reserva 2019 – 750ml Progress

94pts James Suckling

This is a structured and linear Muga Reserva with a creamy and fine-tannined backbone and graphite, cherry, plum and black-truffle character. Medium-bodied, racy and beautiful.

94pts Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

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.

92pts Wine Enthusiast

This deep-hued wine has a bouquet of black plum, cinnamon stick and citrus zest. Black cherry, pomegranate, milk chocolate, violet, caramel and eucalyptus flavors are wrapped in a sheath of velvety tannins that endure on the tongue and gums with a light floral note.

Winemaker Notes

This 2019 Reserva has a bright, ruby-red color, 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.

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

Winery Notes

Bodegas Muga is a family firm founded in 1932 by Isaac Muga and Aurora Caño. The first wines were made in an underground cellar, until in 1968 they decided to set up their own winery in a beautiful old 19th-century town-house situated in the city of Haro. The Bodegas Muga outstanding feature is that it always uses the finest materials, combining tradition with the latest advances in winemaking so as always to give its wines the very best quality without losing authenticity. Indeed, it is the only wine cellar in Spain which employs its own master cooper and coopers, who make all the vats for the cellar as well as the oak casks. The winery remains true to traditional winemaking methods such as racking the casks by gravity and fining the wine with fresh egg whites. Bodegas Muga has succeeded in combining the purest family tradition with an updated vision of the future which has allowed them to preserve their own personality and character.

Blend: 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha, 10% Mazuelo & Graciano