Muga Aro Rioja 2015 enters the album to remember the wines tasted that with the years one does not forget. I had excellent references to this wine, but it was the first time I've been able to taste it, and I hope it won't be the last. It is an authentic work of art made into wine. If I confess to myself that I'm 'very much from Bodegas Muga', it's not something new, but I think this wine has set me the standard for tasting wines from this very high bodega.
Muga Aro Rioja 2015, with 96 Parker points and 99 James Suckling points, is a pleasure in every sense. A wine with a modern style but which unites the classic Rioja wines with that style that is now in demand in some drinkers' profiles. After 18 months of ageing in French oak barrels, it is transferred to oak tanks where it spends another 6 months before being bottled, a total of 24 months of ageing.
Tempranillo and Graciano (70-30%) from vines over 60 years old, are the varietals used in this wine that in its tasting leaves us a spectacular visual phase, with a cherry red color very but very intense, very covered with certain purple trimmings in glass movement and that, at first glance, nobody would anticipate that it has 24 months of aging, but rather is certainly a young wine or little aging.
The nose is very complex, with a good perception of red fruit, fruits of the forest, with certain ripe touches but not much, some very special floral touches and a good minerality that is perfectly balanced with the contributions of the barrel with touches of black pepper, spices such as cinnamon or touches of noble woods.
The entrance in mouth is spectacular, with character and force, something that perceives also in the passage by the palate. A perfectly structured wine with present and firm tannins but at the same time elegant, silky and warm that fills the whole mouth completely. The acidity is perfectly controlled and allows it to have an improper sensation of freshness in a 24 months ageing. Wide and long passage in mouth with a great persistence.
Without a doubt, in my opinion, one of the best wines that I have been able to taste recently and that deserves the 97 points placing the bar of this winery, Bodegas Muga, which is always excellent, very high.
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