Bodegas Muga "Prado Enea" Gran Reserva Rioja 2016
(Rioja, Spain) - [WA 97+] [JS 97] [WE 97] [VM 96] [TA 96] [WS 94]

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: 80% Tempranillo, 20% Grenache, Mazuelo (Carignan) and Graciano.

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:
Vines planted between 1930-1975 on calcareous clay and alluvial soil with an altitude ranging between 550 and 600 metres. Traditional Rioja viticulture that is sustainable and organic, but not certified. The vineyards are dry-farmed and are farmed without the use of harmful chemically synthesized fungicides, pesticides or herbicides. The vineyards for Prado Enea are always the latest vineyards to be harvested by the winery.
Hand-harvested and transported to the winery in crates to protect the grapes from bruising and crushing. The berries are destemmed and optically sorted, but not crushed. Fermentation is started by pied de cuve and carried out in 10,000L (without temperature control) oak vats of varying sizes that are produced on the premises at Bodegas Muga. Malolactic is delayed until late Spring by cooling the cellars with ambient air. Malolactic is spontaneous and takes place in the fermentation vessel. Aged a minimum of 36 months at the winery in barrels and vats of varying sizes and age, ranging from 225L barrique to 16,000L oak vat, all coopered on the premises. Oak is a blend of French (80%) and American (20%). The wine is aged in bottle for a minimum of 36 months before release once bottled.

Ratings & Reviews:

97+ Points - Wine Advocate:
"The expressive, complex and nuanced 2016 Prado Enea Gran Reserva is a textbook traditional Rioja in the making. 2016 was a very elegant year, with aging potential, volume and very good acidity and freshness. It's full-bodied but fine-boned, has 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.6 and 5.25 grams per liter acidity. It has terrific balance, with all the components in the right proportion to age superbly in bottle. They have also been working on the selection of wood used. This wine matured in French and American oak barrels for three years, and the oak is super integrated. 127,808 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2020. It was an exceptional year with volume and quality." – Luis Gutierrez (Feb 2024)

97 Points - James Suckling:
"Complex aromas of dark fruit with violets, walnuts and chocolate. Classy. It's full-bodied with plush yet fine velvety tannins, and a precise and pointed finish. Juicy and savory. Tight finish. It's very long. This is beautiful now but will be even better in three or four years. Linear and vertical at the same time. Try after 2026. (Aug 2023)

97 Points - Wine Enthusiast:
"Deep ruby in color, this wine has a nose of cocoa powder, coffee bean, lavender and cherry. It is smooth at first sip, with tannins that slowly build in volume and then drift away to reveal black cherry, blackberry, chocolate, mint and orange-zest flavors. The brilliant finish is marked with a floral note. Drink through 2036." - Mike DeSimone (July 2024)

96 Points - Vinous Media:
"Aged in barrel for 36 months, the 2016 Gran Reserva Prado Enea is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano from Rioja Alta. This dark garnet wine reveals thyme, plum and sour cherry notes, accompanied by reductive nuances of matchstick and saffron. Additionally, it displays hints of biscuit, wax and dried flowers. On the palate, it is dry, supple and chalky, with a juicy, energetic flow that leads to a long-lasting, complex finish. While the leaner style brought on by the cold vintage may appear slightly unsubstantial for Prado Enea lovers, it remains absolutely delicious." – Joaquin Hidalgo (Apr 2024)

96 Points - Tim Atkin, MW:
"A judicious blend of Tempranillo with 20% Garnacha and 3% Mazuelo, aged in French and 20% American wood, this is engagingly aromatic, with sweet spice and garrigue top notes, red berry and black cherry flavours and detailed, fine-grained tannins. 2025-42." (2/2024)

94 Points - Wine Spectator:
"Complex aromas of dark fruit with violets, walnuts and chocolate. Classy. It's full-bodied with plush yet fine velvety tannins, and a precise and pointed finish. Juicy and savory. Tight finish. It's very long. This is beautiful now but will be even better in three or four years. Linear and vertical at the same time. Try after 2026." - Alison Napjus (Apr 2024) 

93 Points - Decanter Magazine:
"Released in Autumn 2023, this is a sturdy, brooding beast, near obsidian in colour and with a precocious aromatic dominated by tobacco, toasty oak and a beguiling combination of balsamic vinegar and bilberry jam. Frighteningly youthful, an impression confirmed by the rigour of the structure; firm acidity and muscular tannins to the fore, but nothing gets in the way of the quality and power of the dark fruit core which captures the essence of this gloriously idiosyncratic wine in a strong vintage such as this." - Simon Field MW (Apr 2024)