Winemaker Notes
A reddish wine with purple hues. Medium-high depth of color. Very intense aroma son the nose, with predominantly wild berries (blackberries), with a fairly marked hint of violets. Underlying nuances of aromas produced by the French oak casks (cloves, vanilla, dried fruits) which display the high quality of the wood. It is medium-bodied, with a palate in which you can find good acidity, the presence of smooth tannins and a sweetish sensation. The wild berries and violets reappear with the very well integrated oak. It has a very long, elegant finish and shows great potential for laying down due to its acidity and tannin.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The impeccable 2021 Aro is a triple-selection of vines from six different Muga vineyards, all planted to older vines, a selection of a selection resulting in 70% Tempranillo and 30% Graciano here. The addition of Graciano is bold and groundbreaking; very few wines at this level of quality tend to include it, but here we are, it’s made its case. Not made every year, it was produced in 2010, 2015, 2016, 2019 (another 100-point year), and 2021, with about 6,200 bottles made, but there will only be 2,000 bottles or so of the 2022. Black olive, balsamic, textured woody notes, and a depth of full-bodied berry fruit meld together seamlessly across velvety tannins and a firm structure.
-
James Suckling
Such depth and concentration that absorbs the oak spices. In fact, this is a bit closed now. Some crushed violets, blackberries, incense, dark chocolate and black cherries. Profound, full and very powerful, with stacks of dusty tannins. A lot of potential ahead. Drink from 2027.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Aro, a wine produced only in special years when the Graciano ripens thoroughly, as it represents a significant percentage of the blend here; the other grape used is Tempranillo. The grapes fermented in small oak vats with indigenous yeasts, This is their most exclusive wine. Rating:- 97+
-
Wine Spectator
A rich red, offering depth and focus, with an enticing core of blackberry coulis and plum sauce, plus accents of star anise, wild thyme and ground coffee brightened by mouthwatering acidity and well-meshed, muscular tannins. Long, expressive and harmonious, with pretty floral, spice and mineral aromatics echoing on the finish. Tempranillo and Graciano.
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.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.