Winemaker Notes
#51 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2024
This 2020 vintage has a bright ruby-red color, 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.
This wine will be an excellent accompaniment to meat dishes like a ribeye steak, as well as with charcuterie and all kinds of casseroles.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
I loved the 2020 Muga Reserva, a spicy, complex, classic Rioja that has both red and black fruits, ample cedary spice, leather, and violet-driven aromas, medium to full body, a ripe, supple, layered mouthfeel, and outstanding length. A blend of 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha, and the rest Graciano and Mazuelo, it's perfect for drinking over the coming decade.
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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.
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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.
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.