Bodegas Muga Reserva Unfiltered Rioja, Spain, 2020

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Overview of the Wine
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.

Winemaker
Isaac Muga

Grape / Blend
70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha, 7% Mazuelo, and 3% Graciano

Origin
Rioja, Spain

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
This 2020 vintage has a bright ruby-red colour, with medium depth and a garnet-tinged rim. On the nose you discover an intense, complex wine. Aromas of wild fruits of the forest (blackberries and blueberries) come to the fore, with hints of spices. On the palate it is long, elegant and nicely balanced. Its sharp acidity is perfectly integrated and it has soft tannins. The finish is very long and full of fruit. Perfect for drinking now but, thanks to its good balance and structure, it can be kept in the bottle for several years.

This wine will be an excellent accompaniment to meat dishes like a ribeye steak, as well as with charcuterie and all kinds of casseroles.

93 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Reserva showcases wines from the Haro region and is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano fermented in oak vat with a seven-day maceration. It was aged in barrel for 24 months—80% French and the rest are from central Europe and America. It was bottled at 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.55. This is a very reliable wine, keeping the profile year after year: ripe, juicy with integrated oak, spicy and tasty, with fine tannins with an approachable profile. This is a gentler year that is going to be a success with the general public. Balanced and gentle. They produced 936,000 bottles. It was bottled in June 2023.

92 Points - Vinous
The 2020 Reserva is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha Tinta, Mazuelo and Graciano sourced from Rioja Alta. Aged for 24 months in oak barrels crafted at the winery, this garnet wine features a vanilla-cedar layer, accompanied by notes of black fruit, plums and subtle hints of herbs and animal nuances. The palate is dry, creamy and juicy, with a fairly chalky texture that lingers, presenting a compact flow. 

92 Points - James Suckling
Ripe but fresh nose of currants, blackberries, chocolate and plums. Not a big red, rather fluid and medium-bodied with soft tannins. A juicy, drinkable Muga Reserva that is already appealing. Enjoy now.

91 Points - Wine Spectator
A rich, savory thread of tobacco, smoke and ground coffee underscores flavors of creamed cherry and blackberry fruit, black olive, orange peel and cocoa powder in this fresh and focused red. Medium-bodied and well-knit, with lightly chewy tannins firming the finish. Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano. Drink now through 2030. 80,000 cases made, 15,000 cases imported. 

Product size: 750ml