Muga Rioja Torre Muga 2021 (750ml) *
Product price
$149.99
Description
A blend built mostly on Tempranillo (around 90 percent), rounded out with Mazuelo and Graciano, this is Muga's most modern red from the Rioja Alta. The 2021 Torre Muga draws on old vines, more than half a century in age, planted at altitude in Labastida, Briñas, and Villalba de Rioja. Gentle handling in the cellar and eighteen months in new French oak give it concentration without heaviness, and at 14.5 percent alcohol it carries real weight while staying poised. This is a wine still coming into itself, structured for the long haul.
Smoke and toast lead the way, with notes of smoked bacon, cinnamon, caramel, and cedar framing a core of dark berry fruit and a balsamic undertone. The palate is broad and full-bodied, creamy in texture with a fine chalky grip and polished, sweet tannins that lend a cosmopolitan feel. It shows plenty of volume and power now, but the oak is well integrated and the fruit deep, and everything suggests it will knit together further with time. Give it a few years and it will reward the patience.
Product Details
| Category | Wine |
| Country | Spain |
| Region | Rioja |
| Subregion | Rioja Alta |
| Varietal | Rioja Red Blend |
| Producer | Bodegas Muga |
| Vintage | 2021 |
| Size | 750 ML |
| Subtype | Still |
Expert Reviews
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. (Jeb Dunnuck, July 2025)
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. (Vinous, April 2026)
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. (Wine Advocate, February 2025)