Bodegas Muga "Prado Enea" Gran Reserva Rioja 2015
(Rioja, Spain) - [W&S 98] [WE 98] [WA 97] [JS 97] [JD 96] [WS 94, #53 Top 100 Of 2022]

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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.

Grapes Varieties: Tempranillo, Grenache and Mazuelo (Carignan).

Tasting Notes:
This Gran Reserva Prado Enea displays an attractive, deep, dense cherry-red colour. A stylish nose of black fruits mingling with spices, gingerbread and liquorice. The soft, supple entry on the palate leads to a sensation of gentle power and air-light volume underpinned by cashmere silky tannins, harmoniously balanced by fresh acidity. Creamy, vanilla notes come through in the finish with ripe fruit. This wine is tempting to drink now, but it will age well for years.

Food Pairing:
This wine pairs well with casseroles, meat dishes, fish and cheese; and it can even be enjoyed on its own, without any accompaniment.

Vinification:
The grapes for Prado Enea are always the last to be harvested. This is because of the careful selection of high-altitude plots with a fine quality, located in the north-west of the Rioja Alta, in the villages of Sajazarra, Cellorigo and Fonzaleche. The grapes ferment in oak vats with no addition of yeast or temperature control. The maceration period is for 16 days. This is followed by a minimum 36 months in French and American oak casks. At the end of the cask ageing the wine is lightly fined with egg whites before bottling and is then stored in our cellars for at least another 36 months, in order to complete the ageing process.

Ratings & Reviews:

98 Points - Wine & Spirits:
"Touching the sensors of pleasure and pain, this wine’s fruit ripened to a red-peach-at-the-pit intensity, while its tannins seem to strangle all that succulence under their delicate, yet persistent grip. Those tannins bring out the floral and earthy sides of the wine, their austerity neither harsh nor drying, triggering salivation and setting up a hunger for leg of lamb roasted pink. The Muga family selects the fruit for Prado Enea from plots in the south-facing hills of Villalba de Rioja. They age it for a year in large American oak vats, then three years in mostly French oak barrels, holding it in bottle for another three years prior to release."

98 Points - Wine Enthusiast:
"This dark-ruby wine offers a bouquet of ripe cherry and baking spices. Notes of clove and nutmeg transition to the palate alongside flavors of blackberry, cassis, chocolate-covered espresso bean, eucalyptus and violet. Luxurious tannins amble towards a lengthy finish."

97 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate:
"The most classical of their wines, the 2015 Prado Enea Gran Reserva is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano, mostly from Rioja Alta (Sajazarra, Cellorigo and Fonzaleche), but the Garnacha is from different plots in the zone of Tudelilla at high altitude. These grapes are always picked last, but the wine has a similar alcohol level as the rest, around 14.5% in a warm year like 2019. The modus operandi is similar to other of the top cuvées—harvested into 200-kilogram boxes, destemming, optical sorting and fermentation in small oak casks with indigenous yeasts. The élevage in this case is extended to 36 months, and the barrels are only 10% new. This is, year in, year out, my favorite wine from Muga, and in this powerful and ripe year, these late-harvesting vines ripened thoroughly and delivered a full array of aromas and flavors so that the wine has plenty of depth and complexity. It has a very classical profile, with incipient tertiary notes, perfumed, floral and rich, textured and beautifully balanced. They compare this 2015 with 2009 and 2005 in terms of style but with freshness in the style of 2001 and 2010. It's enjoyable but should also develop for a long time in bottle. One of the finest Prado Enea vintages. 108,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2018. There's no 2012 or 2013 of this. There will be a 2016 and 2019, but no 2017 or 2018. 2020 is still a question mark, they have not yet decided it." - LG (Jul 2022)

97 Points - James Suckling:
"Reserved and polished, this is a Prado Enea with great class and focus. It’s so aromatic,with plum, peach, cherry and cedar character. Salted olives, too. Medium-to full-bodied with very fine tannins and a long, fresh finish. Elegance with power here. Give it three or four years to open, but already impressive." (Nov 2022)

96 Points - Jeb Dunnuck:
"The 2015 Prado Enea Gran Reserva comes from a hotter, riper vintage, but it shares similar gamey, exotic aromatics of red and black fruits, sappy herbs, flowers, leather, iron, and background cedary oak. Rich, medium to full-bodied, incredibly pure, and balanced, it has ripe, still present tannins, impeccable balance, and a great finish. This is a classic expression of this cuvée that can be enjoyed any time over the coming two decades or more." (Jun 2022)

94 Points & #53 Top 100 of 2022 - Wine Spectator:
"Well-tailored in an understated way, this harmonious red is plushly creamy on the palate, like fine cashmere, showing seamless integration of the sculpted tannins with finely detailed flavors of black cherry and black plum reduction, sandalwood, cedar, green olive, espresso crema and minerally smoke and iron. Long and lightly juicy on the refined finish. Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha. Drink now through 2030. 8,000 cases made, 2,000 cases imported." - AN (Oct 2022)