$40 Vs $90 Rioja Wines | Bodegas Muga | Tasting with Julien Episode #7

[@isracusa1781]

Torre Muga was my choice to celebrate birth of my daughter. What more can I say. Worth every cent.

[@dennisrosa1551]

Keep up the Spanish wine tasting, I started my collection and your tastings motivated me to buy some Botega Muga wines.

[@YouTubeJulien]

Cool, glad to hear it Dennis :-) Will try do more Spanish wine tasting. Tx for stopping by

[@alisabellaalbrecht1242]

Sir Julien, You are the Knight in Shining armor for those of us who are new to the world of wine! I am enjoying all of your videos and am breathlessly awaiting new ones. The passionate way you describe the wines and their aromas and flavors, even the nuances is so delightful. The proper pronunciations are invaluable and the geography lessons are magical. Thank You So Much!

[@eagle2742]

Huge fan of Muga wines - Thank you Julien ! Cheers 🍷 🇪🇸

[@chrislynch4928]

Love Muga wines. Prado Enea is my favourite. But think I need a full bottle of Torre Muga to myself just to double check!

[@YouTubeJulien]

Cheers Chris, Prado Enea is indeed excellent, nice and lively yet concentrated enough as we expect from Rioja, but vibrant and crisp. Great value for money too. Well, as you've seen Torre Muga is a different style/class, much more concentrated, oaked, dense. Both great in their own styles :-) Thanks for stopping by man

[@welshtoro3256]

My wine knowledge is based on good Spanish wine. I'm pretty good with Spain. A few regions in Italy and a small amount of France. I have connections with Spain but I am convinced that in the last 20 years Spanish wine and wine making has undergone a kind of revolution. The result is some of the best and certainly the best value wine anywhere on the planet. I can buy the Torre Muga for £60. I will say that it's not always the case that the more expensive bottling from a winery results in better wine. I think you hint at this. It depends what you want and I've had great Crianzas that I prefer to Gran Reservas. I love Muga and cheers for the great review. WT

[@YouTubeJulien]

Absolutely, it's probably particularly true in Spain, where as you said you can find very expressive and well-crafted wines at very affordable prices. I lived in Spain for two years, and did three vintages there. Lived in Toro (Zamora). Many affordable wines are open, expressive, fruity and easy to enjoy and love. When you go higher in prices, like from a crianza to a Reserva or GR, you can end up with wines that feel a little 'too much' or over the top in terms of concentration which most wine drinkers aren't necessarily after. There's certainly a bit of this here, with the Prado Enea being a very pleasing expressive wine with plenty of personality and concentration already, while the Torre Muga is a big beast for long ageing and for connoisseurs in search on new and very intense sensations...

[@welshtoro3256]

My parents in law come from Valladolid and I know Toro very well and Toro wine.

[@YouTubeJulien]

@@welshtoro3256 Cool man, I used to hang out in Valladolid when I lived in Toro, Love Castilla Y Leon and the people there. Such a great area, with fantastic wines of course. It was fun living in Toro, the pueblo and everything, fantastic memories. Salud amigo

[@yarraman5002]

Nice review @Julien Miquel - going to sample the 2015 this weekend! Beautiful glass as well by the way - do you mind if I ask which one it is?

[@janellemuga9187]

Proud to be a muga!

[@WineJam]

Nice review will have to look out for the torre

[@alvarogines6788]

Tasting the best of the best man!

[@YouTubeJulien]

, lucky enough to be regularly tasting some beautiful wines indeed. Thanks for stopping by man 😊👍🍷

[@arindamgupta3174]

Thank you! I am learning a lot from you!

[@horlee6126]

Hope you make another episode for Aro Muga

[@derekcontreras7494]

Thanks for a another great video 👍

[@YouTubeJulien]

Thanks much Derek 🥂🙏🙏😀 Glad you enjoyed it. tx for taking the time to leave a kind note

[@nicholasbet4839]

Julien...I love how you describe and love wine. I have a question for you. I LOVE Gran Rioja wines. But I always find they taste better after a 1 hour decant. From what I have read, people are saying its best not to do so. I have tried not to and dont like it out of the bottle. Whats your opinion on this. Thank you

[@YouTubeJulien]

Hi Nicholas. Thank you for your kind words :) Sure, on some wines, decanting or say, aerating for a while opens up the aromas and softens the tannins a bit. Rioja wines are often big, sometimes aged a little, so one hour of decanting is the right move. Have you watched my decanting video yet: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqmpiXd6nsulhdk ? Looking forward to seeing you around N. Cheers 🍷😊

[@nicholasbet4839]

@@KZbinJulien Merci Julien! I love your passion and the vocabulary you use to describe the scent and flavours. Truely amazing.

[@thenightraveler]

Good work!!

[@YouTubeJulien]

Tx man :-) 🥂

[@babakjamali6551]

is Torre muga the best wine they sell I thought it was Muga Aro ???

[@mediastarguest]

Deluxe Spanish offerings in beautifully embellished nonstandard " boutique"bottles in the 30 to 50 dollar range such as Torre Muga Rioja, Mauro Castilla Leon, Matarromera Ribera del Duero, etc etc, although good quality products, need to be tasted BLIND along side sub-10 euro Spanish standard-bearers like Baron De Ley Rioja and Condado de Haza Ribera Duero and for just a few more euros Cosme Palacio Rioja crianza. After that you will NEVER EVER spend fifty dollars again on a bottle of Torre Muga. I believe Baron De Ley Rioja 2013, 7.95€ retail was recently awarded 95 points by Decanter.

[@YouTubeJulien]

tx for your remarks. Interesting. Cheers 🍷👍

[@isracusa1781]

Torre Muga, Mauro and Matarromera are in other league and, as good as Condado de Haza and Baron de Ley are, there's no way you can find them equal in quality. Same about their consistence along time and batches. If you can't appreciate the obvious differences...well, then you'd better buy the cheaper ones. With regard to points in guides...many cellars make wines to be positioned high in those guides, according to fashion. Since Parker i.e. started giving high points to brutally fruity wines, they all began to produce such wines massively. And so on. The thing is not how many points a wine has, but what are you looking for in a wine. This said, you're right: there is no country in the world that offer sub 10 € wines with this quality, though Chile and Argentina are almost there.

[@mediastarguest]

@@isracusa1781 There is EVERY way I can find a 10€ wine like Condado de Haza of higher quality than wines high in added sugar such as Matarromera and Mauro: tasted blind - in which what is inside the bottle is rated and NOT what is on the bottle. Many other enologists, sommeliers, professional tasters and wine journalists use the same technique and share the same opinion as I.