2021 Bodegas Luis Gurpegui Muga 147 Aniversario Rioja 750 ml

Luis Gurpegui Muga’s 147 Aniversario bottling began with a radical idea: What if the winery took some of the top vineyards—sites that formed the backbone of their acclaimed Gran Reservas—and fermented and aged their fruit like modern Bordeaux or Napa bottles?

Gone would be the extended years in oak and the leathery, earthy notes that come with that extended oxidation. In would be more dark fruit, more coiled power—Tempranillo in full flight—and the quality of the vineyards would guarantee that there would still be plenty of complexity and intrigue.

The results were beyond impressive, and now Muga’s 147 Anniversario is the wine most associated with the Bodega in the mind of Rioja insiders. It’s also what our friend Jorge poured for us not three hours after we arrived in Logroño.

The sherry and vermouth were flowing. But the moment Jorge brought out a giant platter of braised lamb, melting gently into a brothy puddle of pepper-strewn gigante beans, bottles of the 2021 Luis Gurpegui Muga 147 Aniversario were being uncorked with abandon.

The 147 Aniversario is hand-harvested from the winery’s top sites, most notably Los Poyatos, which boasts 50-year-old Tempranillo vines that have sunk their roots deep into rocky soil. Once the fruit is picked into small crates—which are much more work to load and handle, but prevent premature crushing of the fruit—they’re painstakingly hand-sorted before a carefully managed fermentation. 

After that, the wine is aged in a mixture of French and American oak for 18 months, which is much shorter than a Gran Reserva, but typical in regions like Bordeaux and Sonoma. It’s a must-have for anyone who loves Spanish wine—or big reds in general—in their youthful glory.