Bodegas Muga’s Reserva Selección Especial sits between the estate’s standard Reserva and the prestigious Torre Muga in the hierarchy of Muga’s Rioja red wine production, produced from a careful selection of the best lots within the Reserva programme and aged for approximately thirty months in French and American oak barriques before an extended bottle ageing period. The wine blends the same Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano varieties used in the broader Reserva programme but with the additional selection, longer ageing and greater proportion of French oak that brings it closer to the stylistic territory of Torre Muga without the latter’s extreme price and limited availability. Muga’s Selección Especial receives consistent coverage from approved publications and reflects the same house philosophy of traditional Rioja Alta winemaking, egg white fining and gravity racking that distinguishes every wine in the Muga range.

The 2019 Rioja vintage was excellent: a warm, dry season with exceptional balance between ripeness and freshness that produced wines of outstanding concentration and natural elegance from the region’s finest old-vine Tempranillo sites. For Muga, whose longstanding Haro-zone vineyards on the cooler, higher-altitude soils of the Rioja Alta benefit from the 2019’s combination of warmth and freshness, this should be one of the finest Selección Especial vintages in recent years. In the 1.5-litre magnum format, the wine’s considerable ageing potential is further enhanced by the slower, more complete development that the larger vessel provides, making this an outstanding cellar acquisition for those who plan to hold it for a further decade before opening.

Deep ruby with a complex and polished nose of ripe Tempranillo fruit, dark cherry, plum, cedar, tobacco, dried herbs, spice and the fine Rioja Alta mineral character from the Haro-zone vineyards. Full-bodied with well-integrated, polished tannins, excellent natural acidity and a long, herb-edged, classical Rioja finish of considerable depth. Best from 2026 through 2040.

Muga’s Selección Especial in the magnum format from a fine vintage represents one of the most compelling cellar-value propositions in Spanish fine wine: a wine of genuine house philosophy and consistent quality from one of Rioja Alta’s most respected traditional bodegas, in the ideal cellaring format, from an excellent vintage, at a price that reflects the Selección Especial’s middle-hierarchy commercial positioning rather than the quality of the wine in outstanding conditions.

Fresh and demure nose with lots of cocoa powder, blackcurrants, blackberries and a hint of cigar and charcoal. Excellent depth and class here with a very juicy center palate. Medium to full body with a long and layered finish. - James Suckling

The subtle and harmonious 2019 Selección Especial reflects a very complete and good vintage. It has to be one of the finest vintages for this wine. 2019 is a powerful vintage with balance and freshness. The grapes ripened thoroughly and developed a full set of aromas and flavors. It's complex and nuanced, with abundant, fine-grained tannins and a long, dry and tasty finish. Selección applies to the vineyards but also the barrels and everything that contributes to this wine; it's not only a selection of lots, which was the case before the 1994 vintage. - Wine Advocate