100% Tempranillo

Food pairings: A very versatile wine: appetizers, barbecues, rice and pasta dishes, or mild grilled meats and fish.

Winemaking: The grapes were picked by hand, optically sorted, lightly destemmed and crushed, then fermented naturally in stainless steel. The wine spent two years in American oak barrels made in the house's own cooperage, new for the first year and averaging four and a half years old for the second, with four traditional hand rackings from barrel to barrel. It was bottled in June 2024.

Vineyards and terroir: The Tempranillo comes from the estate's own vineyards Mayorita, Las Monjas, El Palo and El Bardal in Rodezno and Alto del Rey in Labastida, at 500 to 600 metres on clay-limestone soils, with vines more than 40 years old.

Family and history: La Rioja Alta, S.A. was founded in 1890 in the Barrio de la Estación in Haro, the railway quarter that became the heart of classic Rioja. The house still raises its wines in American oak barrels made in its own cooperage and racks them by hand, from barrel to barrel, in the traditional way. The 2021 is only the second vintage in the history of Viña Alberdi, after 2001, to earn the house's Selección Especial classification.

In the pictures: A La Rioja Alta, S.A. vineyard with a traditional stone shelter; and a hall at La Rioja Alta, S.A., where old wooden vat tops and winemaking tools are on display. Photographs courtesy of La Rioja Alta, S.A.