WINE OF THE WEEK: La Rioja Alta Viña Alberdi Rioja Reserva 2020, Rioja, Spain
£21–£22, Waitrose Cellar, winedirect, Vinvm, Hic!, Divine Fine Wines
If you're familiar with the producer La Rioja Alta, you will expect this Reserva under its Viña Alberdi label to be an excellent, traditional, oak-matured red Rioja from a company that has been a lodestar for more than a century.
But if you’re not familiar with La Rioja Alta’s wines, the label (designed in 2021) would probably suggest a less sophisticated, less classic Rioja.
I would hate anyone to miss out. Viña Alberdi Reserva 2020 is a lovely, classically styled, deep ruby Rioja with inviting, ripe red fruit, darker berry, nutmeg and vanilla oak notes, pine-resin freshness, fine, sandy tannins and a long, satin-smooth finish.
The grapes, from 40-year-old Tempranillo vines, are hand-harvested in La Rioja Alta’s own sustainably farmed vineyards and are fermented spontaneously with wild yeasts. The wine then ages for two years in American oak barrels, the first year in new oak, the second in four-year-old, with racking done by candlelight in the traditional way.
The barrels, though, are no ordinary off-the-peg items. La Rioja Alta imports the oak from the US, air-dries it on site in Haro and then makes the barrels for Alberdi, as well as its other wines, in its own artisanal cooperage there.
In La Rioja Alta’s hierarchy, Viña Alberdi sits below Viña Ardanza and the three Gran Reservas, Viña Arana, 904 and 890 but, like them it can be cellared, if not so long.
You could keep the 2020 Reserva for another seven years, or enjoy it now with red meat or pork, cooked almost any way except hot curry or chilli-heavy. You could also pair it with venison casserole, root vegetables, squashes, pulses, hard cheeses and, perhaps surprisingly to Britons but not to Spaniards, with fish, especially meaty fish in flavoursome sauces. 14%. Empty bottle weight 550g.
La Rioja Alta Viña Alberdi Rioja Reserva 2020, Rioja, Spain
£22, Waitrose Cellar, winedirect, Vinvm, Hic!, Divine Fine Wines
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