Muga - Prado Enea Gran Reserva Rioja 2016 (Pre-arrival) (750ml)

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Producer	Muga
Country	Spain
Region	Rioja
Varietal	Tempranillo
Vintage	2016
Sku	9674
Size	750ml

Founded in 1932 as a family business at the foot of  Montes Obarenses in Haro in the Alto Rioja Region, the winery owns vineyards across the several different soil types around the town including the original parcel in Baltracones, where Tempranillo, Carignana and Graciano are grown as a field blend in chalky alluvial soils very suited to these varietals.

This is a large and important estate in the context of Rioja - extending to 250 hectares. Its high reputation is built on its ability to adhere to a traditional approach while at the same time being willing to adopt novel techniques to ensure wines of the highest quality. Recognizing the importance of oak in the production of their wines, Muga is one of the few Bodegas in Spain to operate its own cooperage.

Destemmed fruit is fermented in wooden casks, wines are aged in larger wood barrels for 24-36 months, depending on the wine’s category, and racked every four months.

Bottle aging at the Bodega is designed to ensure the wines are ready to drink on release.

The Torre Muga bottling is a blend of Tempranillo, Carignana and Greciano aged 18 months in new French Allier oak.

The Prado Enea Gran Reserva comes from a high altitude limestone clay and alluvial sous vineyard just to the north-west of the Rioja Alta. A traditional Rioja blend of Tempranillo, Grenache, Carignan and Graciano, the wine is aged at least 36 months in French and American oak.

Spiced red and black fruits new saddle leather smoky tobacco and lead pencil are just some of the nuances in the 2016 Prado Enea Gran Reserva a pure medium to full-bodied flawlessly balanced beautifully textured Rioja from this team. With beautiful yet building tannins a pure focused style and awesome length on the finish it's a brilliant wine with a solid two decades of prime drinking ahead of it.

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.

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. 127808 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2020. It was an exceptional year with volume and quality.

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. - By Joaquín Hidalgo on December 2023