Bodegas Muga - Aro 2015
Price: $228.00
| Producer | Bodegas Muga |
| Country | Spain |
| Region | Rioja |
| Varietal | Tempranillo |
| Vintage | 2015 |
| Sku | 03770 |
Bodegas Muga Description
Bodegas Muga is Rioja Alta’s premier producer and the Muga family are unanimously considered to be one of Spain’s most important winemaking families. The winery has practically legendary status due to its philosophy revolving around adherence to tradition, dynamism, and winemaking of the highest quality. Few producers in the world fashion wines that have such a sense of tradition and place as Muga’s. The wines of Muga have an absolutely distinct, unique, and inimitable profile.
Bodegas Muga was officially founded in 1932 by the Muga family, who at that point had spent several decades working as viticulturists in Rioja Alta. At the time, the Mugas were in the negociant business of buying, blending, and ageing wine. Soon after the foundation of the cellars they started production of their own estate grown wines. The winery is still owned by the Mugas and every single aspect of its operation is controlled and overseen by the family.
From a production point of view, they are one of the most traditional wineries in the world, as every aspect of the winemaking process is still carried out in oak barrels and vats. Furthermore, every single barrel and vat is made at the winery by the cooperage team. Bodegas Muga is the only winery in Spain that employs their own master cooper, who is assisted by a team of three barrel makers. The master cooper’s son also works at the winery, and is studying to become a master cooper himself. The Mugas travel in the late fall and early winter every year to France and elsewhere to purchase oak for the year. They inspect every single tree and select one by one. The trees are fashioned into staves at the winery, and are seasoned and aged for several years at the winery’s facilities. The winery even has 50,000L vats that were assembled by the master cooper’s own hands.
The winemaking process is carried out with 100% indigenous yeasts. The winery’s barrel room is enormous and Muga employs a crew of six men just for barrel management and rackings. The racking process is completed by gravity in order to maintain the integrity of the wine. During the rackings, the wine is inspected by candlelight to watch for sediments. This way, the wines are effectively filtered naturally without the use of harmful pumps or filters that would otherwise strip the wine of its character. The red wines are fined naturally with egg whites.
Although the Mugas have maintained all aspects of traditional Rioja winemaking, what makes the family great is their vision for the future and adaptability, while always holding true to their philosophy.
70% Tempranillo and 30% Graciano.
Vinification:
Fermentation always occurs naturally and spontaneously. The grapes will always ferment in small wooden vats with a low capacity, no temperature control and indigenous yeasts. Maceration times vary but may go on for as long as two or three weeks. The total time this wine spends in the oak is 24 months, of which 18 months are spent in new, French-oak casks, and the rest in selected French oak vats. After ageing the wine is lightly fined usingfresh egg whites.
Tasting Notes:
Very intense, black-cherry color almost opaque, dense robe and purple hues. It looks very young with
little sign of evolution. Sensations of concentration and depth, with loads of nuances which will be heightened by the bottle aging, and which will become more marked with the passing of time. Sensations of fruit to the fore, recalling red fruit and small, very ripe wild berries (blackberries, redcurrants, wild strawberries…), floral (violet petals) and mineral (graphite, iron) notes. Spicy hints of cinnamon and black pepper from the ageing. With the
oak very well integrated which displays the high quality of the selected wood. Potent structure on the palate, full-bodied with firm tannins of great elegance and quality, balanced by splendid acidity. It gives a sense of solidity with no cracks or sharp edges, hearty, with great balance and a sensation of freshness. Full of flavour, supple
and broad ranging reminders of fruit, minerals and spices in the mouth aromas. The sensations on the nose are reproduced, but perhaps sharper and better defined. A long, full, elegant aftertaste.
James Suckling: 99 Points
A more sophisticated, savory and minerally attitude on the nose with dark chocolate, plum liqueur and dark cherry that's still very primary. Violets, too. This has sexy, seductive dark plums and berries on the palate with an immaculate tannin texture and freshness. Profound, unending depth. Wow! Try this from 2023.
Vinous Media: 96 Points
Opaque ruby. Intensely perfumed aromas of black and blue fruit preserves, mocha and incense, along with cola, vanilla and smoky oak nuances that expand in the glass. Sappy, concentrated and seamless in the mouth, offering powerful blackberry, cherry-vanilla, fruitcake and floral pastille flavors that are given spine and lift by a core of juicy acidity. Conveys a suave blend of richness and finesse and finishes extremely long and smooth, with harmonious tannins adding gentle grip.-- Josh Raynolds
Wine Advocate: 96 Points
I was gladly surprised to find that Muga had produced and just bottled a 2015 Aro, which will not be released until the end of 2018. This is always powerful and concentrated, a selection and blending exercise of individual plants from select vineyards, healthier vines, those that produced smaller bunches, and so on. Since the first harvest of Aro in the year 2000, they have bought more old vineyards, so they applied the same exercise to these new vineyards, which are planted with massal selections. They focus on Graciano and Tempranillo, and they ferment and age these grapes separately. Only in exceptional vintages do they decide to bottle this Aro. It's produced in a similar way as Torre Muga, fermentation by plot in small oak vats (some as small as 1,000 kilograms!), the difference is the grape selection. It aged in brand new French oak barriques selected by the grain of the wood. They look for very small grain (which means slow growing of the oak trees). It started off quite closed, but the first impression was of a very good wine, still very young and still a little marked by the élevage, with some oak notes emerging after the wine had been in the glass for a while. There is almost 30% Graciano in this blend, with the rest Tempranillo. This is full-bodied with abundant, fine-grained tannins and very good balance. This will require some more time in bottle and should have a long life ahead.
– Luis Gutiérrez
Wine Enthusiast: 95 Points
An oak-dominated nose features aromas of wood grain and vanilla, with a deep well of black plum and blackberry. Concentration and structure are hallmarks of the palate, while this warm-year Rioja tastes of black cherry, spiced black plum, blackberry and chocolate. Baking spice flavors take over on the finish. Best from 2024–2040.
Michael Schachner
Wine Spectator: 92 Points
This generous red has a rich texture, with firm tannins supporting the blackberry and currant flavors, laced with smoke, cocoa and licorice notes. Ripe and bold, but focused. Drink now through 2027. 5,000 cases made, 25 cases imported. — TM
