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Muga Reserva Selección Especial 2011 75cl

DOCa | Rioja Alta | Rioja | Spain
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Critics scores
93 Wine Spectator
This red has a firm backbone and a solid texture, with harmonious flavors of plum, blackberry, licorice, cocoa and espresso. Concentrated yet graceful, showing alluring mineral and floral notes on the finish. Drink now through 2026.
92 Robert Parker
The 2011 Reserva Selección Especial, from a warmer and drier year compared with the average (as well as the previous harvest), has a similar blend as the regular Muga Reserva; it is 65% Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha, 10% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo, and it was fermented in small vats with indigenous yeasts. The different varieties and grapes are fermented and aged separately, the first year in new oak and the second one in used barrels. 2011 is a powerful vintage for this cuvée, which now shows quite marked by toasty aromas. Warm vintages usually need longer in bottle to integrate the oak, but experience shows that it gets absorbed and in fact the evolution of this wine in bottle is very good. Even if the nose recommends to wait, the palate is very balanced, with remarkably ripe tannins for such warm year, which can sometime produce some harsh tannins. Not the case here, where the wine shows good elegance and balance. This is a very reliable cuvée, quite stable across vintages.<br/>
Producer
Bodegas Muga
Located in the defining terroir of Haro, this family-owned bodega has been producing traditional wines using modern techniques since 1932. There are no stainless-steel vats at Muga, so everything is fermented in oak, following old-fashioned procedures they also, use natural fining processes, and gravity-fed decanting to instill Riojan authenticity. The Cano family even employs a master cooper and three in-house barrel-makers, making Muga the only cellar in Spain to do so. Historic Rioja at its best, their Reserva, Reserva Selección Especial, and Prado Enea Gran Reserva are chiefly Tempranillo - showing the rounded mellow characteristics, while the notions of Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano pack the punch of thrilling warming notes. Their most contemporary styled, Torre Muga, blends Mazuelo and Graciano with mostly Tempranillo, for an impressive new blackberry fruited wine. The bodega, year after year, produces the most reliable and affordable Reservas. But they also offer a delicious higher-end wine called Aro. It is a complex blend of 60-year-old Tempranillo and Graciano, which is aged for 18 months in new French oak.