Bodegas Muga, Flor de Muga Blanco, Rioja, Spain, 2019

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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.

Grape / Blend
Viura, Garnacha blanca and Maturana blanca

Origin
Rioja, Spain

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
Wine with a bright, golden-yellow colour.

Very complex, high intensity of aromas on the nose with white blossom, green apples, grapefruit, orange peel and a touch of spices, such as cinnamon.

On the palate the harmonious balance of acidity and smoothness comes as a surprise. Citrus fruit flavours return, with a touch of minerality and a very long, refreshing finish.

95 Points - James Suckling
Structured, complex and layered white with medium body and a creamy, phenolic texture. Dried lemons, apricot stones, cedar, flint and sea salt. Long and evolving. Very fresh, too. Fantastic.

94 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The second vintage of their top white is the 2019 Flor de Muga Blanco, produced with a blend of 40% Viura from red limestone and clay soils, 30% Garnacha Blanca from classical clay and limestone and 30% Maturana Blanca planted on sandy soils. It fermented in small barrels with indigenous yeasts and then matured in concrete eggs for three months and new barriques built in their own cooperage for six months. The wine is 13.2%alcohol and has a pH of 3.2 with very good acidity. There are only 37 hectares of Maturana Blanca in Rioja, of which they have eight. It's the same grape as the extinct Ribadavia variety from Galicia. The variety disappeared because it delivers very low yields, but they love the quality when it's picked fully ripe when it still keeps very good acidity. The wine is still a little oaky and powerful, from a warm and dry year, but the palate is electric and almost salty.

90 Points - Wine Spectator
Lightly creamy and elegant, with a kiss of oak spice accenting notes of poached pear and apple, lime blossom and blanched almond. Clean-cut, with a subtle streak of salinity on the finish. Viura, Garnacha Blanca and Maturana Blanca. Drink now.

Product size: 750ml