2021 Torre Muga
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Tasting notes
From vineyards around Villalba and Haro, the 2021 Torre blends Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano. Pronounced oak tones—coconut, caramel and cedar—frame the nose, alongside dark fruit. On the palate it is broad and creamy, with plush fruit, a gentle chalky texture and sweet, polished tannins that give the wine an international feel. First tasted in 2025, it seemed slightly disjointed, but it has since gained better integration in bottle.
Critic scores
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Jeb Dunnuck
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2021 Torre Muga is a big baby, still developing, remarkable in its wafty layers of 90% Tempranillo and complements of Mazuelo and Graciano. Gentle extraction is the key, the grapes coming from small plots of low-yielding older vines in Villalba de Rioja, Brinas, and Labastida. Smoky cinnamon and balsamic provide a sultry character to the berry fruit before going into new Allier oak barrels for 18 months. It has concentrated volume and full-bodied power, a gorgeous wine from a gorgeous vintage that’s worth the price. Structured to develop further another 20-25 years, it should hit its prime in about five.
The 2021 Torre Muga was produced with Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano grapes from 55+-year-old vines in the zones of Labastida, Briñas and Villalba de Rioja between 480 and 560 meters in altitude. The grapes were destemmed and put through an optical sorting machine and fermented in small oak vats with indigenous yeasts. The wine matured in new French oak barrels for 18 months on average, as the different varieties aged separately. It has 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.56 and 5.6 grams of acidity, pretty standard parameters here. It's very toasty and smoky, their most modern red, with abundant notes of smoked bacon and fried corn, showy and extroverted. It has the great tannins from the year, elegant and polished, one of the finest vintages for Torre Muga, along with 2016 and 2010. They have been buying better oak for their barrels in the last few years, and the oak feels better integrated and more elegant. The wine is still a little young and should get better with time in bottle. 37,355 bottles produced. It was bottled in October 2023.
The 2021 Torre Muga is a blend of Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano from Rioja. It aged for 18 months in new French oak barrels. Garnet-red in hue, this opens with pronounced oak, blackberry and sour cherry notes, followed by spicy herbs, orange peel, incense and toffee in which the oak is a layered presence. On the palate, it’s juicy and structured, with moderate concentration and a polished texture that conveys both energy and elegance, although it still needs to settle down and integrate properly. This promises to develop a refined, expansive flow with further time in bottle.
About the producer
Nestled in the historic town of Haro, at the very heart of Rioja Alta, Bodegas Muga stands as a beacon of tradition and excellence, seamlessly marrying time-honoured winemaking with the finest modern refinements.