Four critics at 97 points, a decade after the harvest, from the only winery in Spain that makes its own barrels. I tasted it in the cellar in Haro from a magnum, and it is as regal a Rioja as I know. We are down to eighteen bottles, plus the last five of the Reserva that Wine Spectator ranked #51 in the world.

• Only 18 Bottles Of The 2016 · Last 5 Of The Reserva

A Personal Note

Dear Artisans,

The 2016 harvest in Rioja Alta is ten years behind us. Muga kept this wine for three years in oak and three more in bottle before it left Haro, and the critics who tasted it on release did not hold back: 97+ from Wine Advocate, 97 from James Suckling, Wine Enthusiast and Jeb Dunnuck. We have offered it several times since, and we are now down to the last eighteen bottles.

Prado Enea is not made every year. There was no 2012 and no 2013; the family only bottles it when the vintage earns it. The 2016 earned it, and it follows a hard act: Wine Spectator put the previous release, the 2015, at #53 in its Top 100 of 2022, the only Rioja on that list.

The Only Winery In Spain That Makes Its Own Barrels

Muga is one of a handful of wineries anywhere that still runs its own cooperage, and the only one in Spain. A master cooper and three barrel makers work on the premises, along with a specialist who builds the big oak vats. Every barrel and every vat this wine touches, from the 10,000-litre fermentation vats to the 225-litre barriques, was coopered in-house.

I stood in that workshop in 2024. Two men were bending staves and toasting barrels over open fires, and they told me they do it seven days a week, all day. Then you taste the wine, and there is no mystery left: it is flawless and supremely regal, the oak so completely woven in that you stop noticing it.

The rest of the house style is just as stubborn. Fermentation starts on its own in oak, malolactic waits for spring, and the wine is fined with fresh egg whites and moved by gravity. Nothing in the cellar is stainless steel.

Haro, the hills above the vines, the cooperage and the barrel cellar

The Tasting In Haro

The photo below is from my visit. The family poured the whole range for us, whites through Aro, and the 2016 Prado Enea came out of magnum. It was the wine of the afternoon by a distance: black fruit, spice, gingerbread and liquorice on the nose, then that gentle power and air-light volume the winery itself talks about, carried on tannins like cashmere.

Wine Advocate’s Luis Gutiérrez called it “a textbook traditional Rioja in the making” and Jeb Dunnuck gave it “a solid two decades of prime drinking ahead of it.” I would not argue with either.

The line-up in Haro, 2024. The 2016 Prado Enea, from magnum, is the tall bottle right of centre.

Robb Report Agrees

Robb Report’s Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen put the 2016 Prado Enea on their list of the best red Riojas to buy right now, and said what you see below about how long it has been a favourite of theirs. DeSimone is also the man behind Wine Enthusiast’s 97 points and Cellar Selection. Read the Robb Report piece here.

Robb Report, 7 Excellent Red Wines From Rioja To Buy Right Now

The Price

Prado Enea is $109.97. Its peers at the top of Spain sell for well over 2-5 times that.

That is not a discount; it is what a family that owns its vineyards, its cooperage and its own cellar of a million bottles can afford to charge. It is, bottle for bottle, the best age-worthy Spanish red we know at the price, and there are eighteen left.

The Last Five Reservas

Behind it, the last five bottles of the 2020 Muga Reserva, Wine Spectator’s #51 wine of 2024 at $35.99. The same cellar, the same barrels, two years in oak instead of three, and ready tonight. And if you want to know where this label is headed: the 2021 that follows it was just named Wine Spectator’s Wine Value of the Year. Details below.

James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Why This Matters

The Wine · Last 18 Bottles

2016 Muga Prado Enea Gran Reserva.

Wine Advocate 97+. James Suckling, Wine Enthusiast and Jeb Dunnuck 97.

Bodegas Muga “Prado Enea” Gran Reserva 2016

Rioja Alta, Spain · Haro

Tempranillo with Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano from vines planted between 1930 and 1975, at 550 to 600 metres, always the last vineyards the winery picks. Three years in oak, three in bottle. Every review is below, highest score first.

Last Call · The Final 5 Bottles

2020 Muga Reserva.

Wine Spectator’s #51 Wine Of 2024. Wine Advocate 93.

Bodegas Muga Reserva 2020

Rioja, Spain · Haro

The everyday Muga, from the same cellar and the same barrels: Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano, fermented in oak vats and aged 24 months in barrel, 80% of it French. Wine Spectator put it at #51 in its Top 100 of 2024 and has since named the following vintage, the 2021, its Wine Value of the Year. Wine Advocate calls it a wine that keeps its profile year after year. We have five bottles of the 2020.

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The Bottom Line

Eighteen bottles of a 97-point Gran Reserva, from the winery that makes its own barrels.

Ten years from harvest, three of them in Muga’s own oak and three in bottle, and Jeb Dunnuck still gives it two decades. It is $109.97, under half what its Rioja peers ask and less than a third of the Castillo Ygay above it on our shelf.

Take the last five Reservas at $35.99 while you are at it. When these are gone, the next Prado Enea we can offer you will be a different vintage at a different price.

Salud,

— James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Only 18 Bottles Of The 2016 · Last 5 Of The Reserva

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