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.
98 points, Virginie Boone, Jeb Dunnuck (Jul 2025)
In classic Torre Muga style, this is structured but polished with a fine, woodsy smokiness that delivers depth to the nose. There’s a minty edge to the excellent layers of rich but fresh blackberries with dried herbs, pine cones, rosemary and lard. Well-integrated, caressing tannins are almost powdery. Really long. Drink from 2026.
97 points, Zekun Shuai, James Suckling (Jul 2025)
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.
96 points, Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (Feb 2025)
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