Bodegas Muga Flor de Muga Rioja Rosado Reserva 2021
(Rioja, Spain) 750mL - [WA 93+] [JS 92]

About the Winery:
Bodegas Muga is Rioja Alta’s premier producer and the Muga family are unanimously considered to be one of Spain’s most important winemaking families. The winery has practically legendary status due to its philosophy revolving around adherence to tradition, dynamism, and winemaking of the highest quality. Few producers in the world fashion wines that have such a sense of tradition and place as Muga’s. The wines of Muga have an absolutely distinct, unique, and inimitable profile.

About the wine: 

GRAPES: Garnacha Tinta.

SOIL: Flor de Muga comes from a dozen carefully selected plots in the Alto Najerilla district and upper reaches of the Valle del Oja. Both districts enjoy a Continental climate and the vines are between 70 and 90 years old. Low-yielding bush vines grown mainly on slopes. The combination of the characteristics of the calcareous clay and ferrous clay soils, location and climate makes them ideal for preserving the fresh profile needed for making rosé wines of great complexity.

VINIFICATION: The grapes are picked by hand at the peak of ripeness and transported to the cellar in small crates in refrigerated transport so as to preserve intact the full aromatic potential. After a short period of maceration, where contact with the skins is maintained, 50% of the free-run must, the first must to flow from the press by simple gravity, is selected. This then ferments at a low temperature in small oak vats, separately, plot by plot. Once the fermentation is complete, the wine is left on its fine lees for a minimum of 4 months, with regular stirring, or bâtonnage, to keep the lees in suspension and protect the wine in a natural way by preserving the aromas and providing volume in the mouth-feel. After this process is complete, the wines are sampled, plot by plot, so as to determine the final coupage.

TASTING: Bright, pale-pink colour. High degree of complexity and intensity on the nose, with aromas of red-berry fruit, stone fruit (peach, apricot), white blossom and citrus fruit – all very typical characteristics of the Garnacha Tinta variety. You can also detect a subtle, spicy note (vanilla, cinnamon) produced by its vinification and ageing in small oak vats. On the palate it is very elegant and well-balanced. It has marked acidity which brings it length and liveliness. Again the fruit notes appear in the mouth, especially apricot. The finish is very long and fresh, with very smooth tannin which provides backbone to convert it into a very gastronomic wine.

FOOD PAIRING: Pasta, rice, white meat and a varied range of cheeses

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