The La Rioja Alta Alberdi Reserva is one of the best sub-$30 bottles of wine on the planet. It's classic Rioja, with savory spices to balance out the fruit and fresh acid that rinses your palate clean and leaves you wanting more.  The 2019, made from a stellar vintage, is drinking great:

"Intense and brilliant garnet color with a vivid ruby rim. On the nose, it stands out for its high intensity, with notes of red fruits—raspberries, wild strawberries, and redcurrants— wrapped in a marked balsamic aroma of caramel, vanilla, toffee, and roasted coffee. On the palate, it is long, balanced, and fresh, with fine and silky tannins. A long finish, where the initial balsamic and fresh red fruit aromas characteristic of Viña Alberdi reappear."

Manually harvested into boxes, with cluster selection in the vineyards. After being harvested, the grapes are transported refrigerated to the winery to maintain their integrity. Rigorous quality control using optical sorting tables assures that only the best grapes make it to the alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, both of which occur naturally. During two years of aging in our own American oak barrels (new the first year and four-year-old barrels the second), La Rioja Alta performs four traditional rackings by candlelight, from barrel to barrel. Bottled in June 2023.