There is no formula for identifying great value when it comes to wine. Growing conditions, vintage variations, winemaking styles and personal tastes can change from year to year, making hard-and-fast rules difficult to pin down. What is clear is that producers around the world are making a range of high quality wines at affordable prices.
That’s why, for the fifth year in a row, we’ve enlisted our team of editors to select the top values of the past 12 months. How do wineries keep their costs down and their production figures up? It’s different from region to region, but our selection process focuses on wines that express the distinctive character of an appellation or variety while keeping prices low through innovative methods in the vineyard and cellar.
The list is capped by our choice for Wine Value of the Year, the Bodegas Muga Rioja Reserva 2021.
View the full list of the Top 10 Values of 2025!
BODEGAS MUGA
Rioja Reserva 2021
92 points | $39 | 80,000 cases made, 15,000 cases imported
Rioja is undeniably Spain’s best-known wine region, heralded for its long history and excellent value. Many bodegas adhere to the region’s traditional practices, such as using multiple grape sources to allow for greater volume and aging in oak barrels to impart distinctive character and added richness. Bodegas Muga’s flagship bottling, its Rioja reserva, exemplifies this model, combining high quality, good availability and a wallet-friendly price.
The Rioja region rose to prominence in the late 1800s, making Bodegas Muga a relative newcomer when the winery was founded in 1932 by Isaac Muga Martínez and his wife, Aurora Caño. Yet the Muga family wasn’t new to the region, having grown and sold grapes for multiple generations before finding success as a négociant.
Muga Martínez’s legacy continues today with the third generation. Siblings Juan, Eduardo and Manuel Muga manage the commercial aspects of the winery, while their cousin, Isaac Muga, serves as technical director in charge of winemaking, working with enologist Pablo Orio.
The Mugas’ 1,050 acres of estate-owned vineyards supply 60 percent of their production needs. The sustainably farmed vineyards are located primarily near the winery in Haro, in the Rioja Alta subzone. The rest of their fruit is sourced from nearly 100 different growers, many close by but others farther flung. “Eighty percent of our growers are the grandchildren of the people who worked with our grandad,” says Eduardo. “Twenty percent might change each year. As a family from Rioja, it’s important to us to maintain this ecosystem of growers.”
“In my opinion, the future of Rioja comes from working the vineyard, working to better understand which terroirs provide the best grapes for each wine style,” says Isaac. Whenever possible, sites are vinified and aged separately, resulting in roughly 200 different wines to blend for the winery’s dozen labels.
The reserva represents one of the biggest blending challenges. “It’s our workhorse wine, our entry label—it pays the salary of everything else we do,” Isaac jokes. “But it’s also the most difficult wine to make. Single-parcel wines, they’re easy. One million bottles? That’s not easy.”
Fermentation takes place in oak vats of varying sizes before blending. Aging encompasses 24 months in neutral oak barriques, 80 percent French and 20 percent American, and at least 12 months in bottle before release. From the exceptional 2021 vintage, the team blended 75 percent Tempranillo with 15 percent Garnacha, 6 percent Mazuelo and 4 percent Graciano.
Bodegas Muga is the only winery in Spain employing its own master cooper, who oversees three barrel makers responsible for crafting every oak vessel in the winery. Additionally, Muga family members travel to France and the U.S. each year to select oak sources, seasoning the wood at the winery prior to construction. This commitment imparts an unrivaled level of detail and control.
Except for two weak harvests, the reserva has been produced every year since the label’s debut with the 1968 vintage. The ’21 is a classic example with its core of cherry and plum fruit, yet the sculpted tannins, minerally underpinning and fragrant hints of spices, herbs and coffee mark it as a version with greater complexity, enjoyable now but also cellar-worthy for at least another decade.
Tasting Note: This is fresh and minerally up front, opening to reveal a fine mesh of chopped cherry and plum skin flavors, with fragrant hints of ground coffee, smoked paprika and dried marjoram. Sculpted tannins define the long, slightly chewy finish.—Alison Napjus
Issue: May 31, 2025
WineSpectator.com members: Find more great 2021 Riojas and learn more about the region’s offerings.
- 2021 Rioja Tasting Report: Rioja Rising (May 31, 2025)
- Rioja Cover Story: Rediscovering Rioja (May 31, 2025)
- Winemakers of Rioja Feature: Rioja’s Leading Lights (May 31, 2025)
- Spanish Wines Tasting Report: The Spirit of Spain (Oct. 31, 2025)
- Know Your Grapes: Tempranillo (Jun. 2, 2022)
- Wine Ratings Search: 2021 Rioja Reservas, 90+ Points (rated in the past 12 months)
- Wine Ratings Search: 2021 Riojas, 85+ Points and $50 or less (rated in the past 12 months)
