Bodegas Muga Tempranillo Blend Rioja Aro 2004

Saturated ruby. Exotically perfumed, syrah-like bouquet of red and dark berries, violet, smoky bacon and graphite, with a vanillin oak spice undertone adding an exotic touch. Fleshy, palate-staining cassis and bitter cherry flavors are brightened by piquant minerality and firmed by fine-grained tannins. Cracked pepper and mace qualitites come up on the long, silky finish. Extremely suave and strikingly complex wine with excellent balance.

The 2004 Torre Muga is 75% Tempranillo, 15% Mazuelo, and 10% Graciano. It is aged for 3 months in large wood vats before spending 18 months in new French oak. Inky purple-hued, it exhibits a superb nose of wood smoke, pencil lead, spice box, scorched earth, and blackberry. This leads to a layered, opulent wine with 5ndash;7 years of aging potential. It has great balance and should drink at its best from 2015 to 2025.

The new luxury Rioja, the 1995 Torre Muga Reserva Especial (75% Tempranillo, 15% Mazuelo, and 10% Graciano), was kept 22 months in large American oak vats and then moved to 100% new French oak for 16 months. There are approximately 5,000 cases of this gorgeous Rioja, which has managed to endure significant oak aging, yet retain remarkable levels of fruit, complexity, and richness. The Lafite-Rothschild of Rioja, it offers elegant, spicy, cedary, black cherry, mineral, and toasty aromas. Medium to full-bodied, with harmony among its component parts, this is a wine of exceptional grace, richness, length, and overall symmetry. It can be drunk now, but promises to improve for 12ndash;20 years. Impressive!

Plush and harmonious, this red is alluring yet subtle, with intense flavors backed by an impressive structure. Look for black currant, cocoa, cigar box and mineral notes now, and expect further complexity as this evolves. Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano. Drink now through 2020.

This seems eminently ageworthy; it has the strong foundation and pulsing acidity required of a true cellar dweller. The raspberry and plum fruit have a beam of acidity and the tannins are not shy. Shows all the hallmarks of a fine modern Rioja: power, purity and balance.

Made from the local varieties of Tempranillo, Graciano, and Mazuelo, the Torremuga is one of Muga's most powerful reds. This wine shows elegance and finesse, with notes of roasted coffee bean, dark chocolate, and dried fruit. Muga remains one of the oldest family run estates in Rioja.

A selection from Mugarsquo;s oldest vineyards in Villalba, Torre Muga packs all the machismo of an alta expresioacute;n wine, chewy, dense and powerful. It lasts on tough, mineral-inflected tannin and generous black cherry flavor, the fruit component substantial enough to fill the structure completely. Itrsquo;s balanced in its power, juicy and firm, needing years to fully develop.