Torre Muga is the flagship wine of Bodegas Muga, one of Rioja Alta’s most respected family estates, produced from the finest Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo vines in the estate’s top vineyard parcels and aged in new French oak barriques. Muga has operated as a family-owned bodega in Haro since 1932, and its approach to winemaking, which incorporates traditional methods including egg white fining and racking by gravity, has earned it a reputation for wines of exceptional elegance, precision and longevity that set it apart from the more commercially driven Rioja producers. Torre Muga is the estate’s most structured and age-worthy expression, designed for the cellar rather than for immediate consumption, and it consistently earns the highest scores in the Muga range from all five approved publications.

The 2020 Rioja vintage was warm and produced wines of good concentration and early aromatic appeal, though Muga’s winemaking team managed the vintage with the restraint and precision that the estate’s signature elegance requires. James Suckling awarded the 2020 Torre Muga 94 points, describing the wine’s characteristic profile of mint, blackberries, cocoa powder, graphite, black pepper and roasted dark spices. The wine is produced from approximately 70% Tempranillo with Graciano and Mazuelo, aged for 26 months in new French barriques following destemming through an optical sorting machine, and bottled after fining with egg whites in the traditional Muga manner. While the wine-searcher aggregate for the 2020 sits at 94/100, Muga’s winemaking director himself describes the 2020 as “textbook” for this style, with the tannins noted as “not as precise and elegant as 2021” but “a very worthy wine.”

Torre Muga is consistently regarded as one of Spain’s finest and most age-worthy estate reds, and its position as the flagship of one of Rioja’s most technically accomplished traditional bodegas gives it a cultural and market significance that extends well beyond its considerable intrinsic quality. For collectors of Spanish fine wine who seek wines of structural seriousness and documented cellaring potential alongside the elegance that the Rioja Alta terroir and the traditional Muga approach invariably provide, the 2020 is a reliable and compelling acquisition.

Deep ruby with a complex nose of mint, dark blackberry, cocoa powder, graphite, black pepper and roasted dark spices, with a fine Rioja Alta mineral thread from the estate’s Haro-zone clay and limestone soils. Full-bodied with structured, precise tannins, excellent natural acidity and a long, mineral, classically-styled Rioja finish. Best from 2027 through 2045.

Mint, blackberries, cocoa powder, graphite, black pepper and roasted dark spices. A more developed and tertiary style, with generous spice and toast and a palate with more grip. — James Suckling

Lastly, the 2020 Torre Muga just about jumps out of the glass with its complex red and black fruits, savory flowers, tobacco, lead pencil shavings, and graphite-like aromatics. Plush, full-bodied, concentrated, and beautifully balanced, it shows the softer, more rounded style of the vintage and has ripe tannins and a great finish. —  Jeb Dunnuck