2011 Torre Muga Reserva

Opaque ruby. Powerful aromas of black and blue fruits, vanilla, incense and candied flowers are complicated by smoke and minerals. Broad, fleshy and appealingly sweet, offering intense boysenberry and cherry-vanilla flavors that tighten up slowly on the back half. Rich yet vibrant Rioja with superb finishing clarity and smooth tannins arriving late to frame the wine's plush, sweet fruit. After fermentation and six months of aging in large French oak vats this wine was moved into small new French oak casks for another 18 months before bottling.

The Mugas are happy with the 2011 harvest. The 2011 Torre Muga is a dark-colored, almost opaque, ripe and concentrated effort. (It contains the Tempranillo that would normally be part of the Aro, and was not produced because they didn't get the Graciano they needed.) They are selling this very young (but still, it will not be released until around September 2015). It is quite heady with aromas of ripe plums, spices, lead pencil, ink and well-integrated oak. The palate is full-bodied, round and lush with plenty of dense and concentrated tannins that feel very young. If you have in mind the Torre Muga from the beginning, this has a lot less oak and is less extracted; it has much better balance. As usual, it's a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo and others, from a very cold zone close to the Oja-Tirón rivers, which might explain why this wine is so fresh in such warm vintage. There will be no Torre Muga in 2012 or 2013, and possibly very little 2014. So stock up on this if you want a wine like it, because it will keep and develop well in bottle. 32,000 bottles produced.