Rosado
Rioja DOCa · Rioja Alta, Spain
- 125ml
- £6
- 175ml
- £9
- Bottle
- £35
- Grape
- Garnacha · Viura · Tempranillo
- Vintage
- 2023
- Region
- Rioja Alta, Spain
The short version
The only cellar in Spain with its own master cooper — Muga builds its own barrels, three of them at a time.
A clarete, not a modern rosé — white Viura fermented in with the red Garnacha, in wood, the old Rioja way.
Peach skin and texture. For anyone who thinks rosé is thin.
How it tastes
Aroma & flavour
Sell it with
Ibérico Ham, Manchego, Membrillo & House Bread
Rioja clarete with jamón and manchego is the oldest pairing in the Spanish book, and this is why: the months on lees give it the weight to stand up to cured fat, and the wood-fermented savoury edge meets the ham rather than being flattened by it. The acid resets the palate between the membrillo's sweetness and the salt.
Where to take them next
The detail — if they ask
A clarete rather than a modern rosé — the white Viura goes into the vat with the red Garnacha, an old Rioja habit. Fermented in wood rather than steel and left on fine lees for months, which is where the texture comes from. Peach skin and pale red fruit, with a savoury edge no Provence rosé has.
Bodegas Muga
- Producer
- Founded in Haro in 1932 by Isaac Muga and Aurora Caño, still family-run. The most traditional cellar in Rioja — and the only one in Spain with its own master cooper and three in-house barrel-makers, building its own barrels.
- Region
- Fruit from two valleys for two reasons: the Valle del Oja for calcareous clay, which gives structure and acidity, and the Valle del Najerilla for ferrous clay, which gives the minerality.
- Grapes
- Garnacha off old vines carries the red fruit and the weight. Viura, co-fermented, is what makes it a clarete and lifts the aromatics.
Not a stainless steel tank in sight. Everything here happens in wood, including the rosé.