Bodegas Muga Prado Enea Gran Reserva 2016 (750ml)

 

Rated 97 Points by James Suckling

 

Complex aromas of dark fruit with violets, walnuts and chocolate.  Classy.  It's full-bodied with plush yet fine velvety tannins, and a precise and pointed finish.  Juicy and savory.  Tight finish.  It's very long.  This is beautiful now but will be even better in three or four years.  Linear and vertical at the same time.  Try after 2026.

 

Rated 97 Points by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

 

The expressive, complex and nuanced 2016 Prado Enea Gran Reserva is a textbook traditional Rioja in the making.  2016 was a very elegant year, with aging potential, volume and very good acidity and freshness.  It's full-bodied but fine-boned, has 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.6 and 5.25 grams per liter acidity.  It has terrific balance, with all the components in the right proportion to age superbly in bottle.  They have also been working on the selection of wood used.  This wine matured in French and American oak barrels for three years, and the oak is super integrated.  Rating:  97+

 

Rated 97 Points by Wine Enthusiast

 

Deep ruby in color, this wine has a nose of cocoa powder, coffee bean, lavender and cherry.  It is smooth at first sip, with tannins that slowly build in volume and then drift away to reveal black cherry, blackberry, chocolate, mint and orange-zest flavors.  The brilliant finish is marked with a floral note.

 

Rated 94 Points by Wine Spectator

 

A powerful red that nonetheless shows poise and fine integration, wrapping a core of dense tannins around focused flavors of baked black plum, green olive, fig cake and ground coffee, with a savory underpinning of loamy earth, leather and leafy herb notes. Plush in texture and appealing, with a long, well-spiced finish.

 

Muga Prado Enea Gran Reserva Spain 2016

 

Grapes Varieties:  Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano.

 

Prado Enea Gran Reserva 2016 has a blackcherry colour with medium depth.  On the nose we find an elegant collection of forest fruit (blackberries) with spices like cloves and cinnamon.  It has a silky-smooth attack with medium body and a very long, pleasant passage through the mouth.  We find velvety tannins in perfect harmony with its fresh and well-integrated acidity.  You can also find creamy and vanilla notes mingling with fresh fruit.

 

Food Pairings

 

This wine pairs well with casseroles, meat dishes, fish and cheese; and it can even be enjoyed on its own, without any accompaniment.

 

Vinification

 

Prado Enea grapes are always the last to be harvested.  It is a matter of careful selection of vineyard plots at altitude with grapes of fine quality, located in the northwest corner of the Rioja Alta, in the villages of Sajazarra, Cellorigo and Fonzaleche.  The grapes ferment in oak vats.  Maceration is for 14 to 16 days.  Following this the wine spends a minimum of 36 months ageing in French and American-oak casks, to give it greater complexity.  At the end of this period of ageing, the wine is lightly fined using fresh egg whites before bottling and then remains in our cellar for at least a further 36 months in order to complete the ageing process by providing elegance to the wine.

 

Geology & Soil

 

Calcareous clay and alluvial.  With an altitude ranging between 550 and 600 metres.

 

 

Bodegas Muga

 

Bodegas Muga is a family business founded by Isaac Muga and Aurora Caño in 1932, which is located in the historic Barrio de La Estación (Station Quarter) of Haro.  With an area of around 25,000 square metres, it is home to both the most traditional winemaking methods and the latest cutting-edge techniques.

 

Wines that are born from inspiration and authenticity.

 

In Muga, we always use the finest materials and are open to new techniques that provide greater quality without losing authenticity.

 

To produce each of our wines, we continue opting for traditional procedures:

 

Through the natural process of fining, we eliminate the suspended particles that appear in the wine.

 

We carry out the decanting by the traditional method of gravity.
 

We are the only cellar in Spain with a master cooper and three in-house barrel-makers.

 

Muga

 

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.

 

 

Rated 97 Points by Wine Enthusiast

 

Deep ruby in color, this wine has a nose of cocoa powder, coffee bean, lavender and cherry.  It is smooth at first sip, with tannins that slowly build in volume and then drift away to reveal black cherry, blackberry, chocolate, mint and orange-zest flavors.  The brilliant finish is marked with a floral note.

 

 

 

Rated 94 Points by Wine Spectator

 

A powerful red that nonetheless shows poise and fine integration, wrapping a core of dense tannins around focused flavors of baked black plum, green olive, fig cake and ground coffee, with a savory underpinning of loamy earth, leather and leafy herb notes. Plush in texture and appealing, with a long, well-spiced finish.