Viña Alberdi Selección Especial

Viña Alberdi is the shortest-aged of La Rioja Alta's Rioja reds, and the 2021 is unusual twice over: it is only the second Alberdi ever to carry the house's own Selección Especial classification - the first was 2001 - and it is the first vintage of the brand sold as a Reserva in Spain, where it had historically gone out as a Crianza. La Rioja Alta credit a dry October with sunny days and cool nights for a slow, even finish to the ripening.

100% estate Tempranillo from five parcels - Mayorita, Las Monjas, El Palo and El Bardal at Rodezno, and Alto del Rey at Labastida - on clay-limestone between 500 and 600 metres, from vines planted over forty years ago. Hand-picked with selection in the vineyard and again on optical sorting tables, then natural alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in tank.

Two years in American oak from the house's own cooperage: new barrels for the first year, four-and-a-half-year-old barrels for the second, with four barrel-to-barrel rackings along the way, the traditional six-month cadence La Rioja Alta still does by candlelight. Bottled in June 2024. Dry, 14%.