The El Coto wines from Rioja in northeastern Spain have long been a favorite of mine – I especially recommend the white and rosé at an astounding $10 – but this week I am moving up the quality scale a bit and focusing on their red Reserva, the Coto de Imaz Rioja Reserva 2004 ($20).

One of the many things I like about Riojas is that the producers age the wines for several years before release – a practice that’s expensive and therefore increasingly rare in the wine world these days, but it does mean that the wines are really ready to drink by the time you buy them.

What’s even more impressive though is that they can indulge in this costly practice and still sell the wines at a price that, when compared to most other countries, represents a terrific bargain.

This is what you get in the Coto Reserva, along with the fact that it also tastes to me totally and unmistakably of Spain.

At first it explodes with glowing fruit flavors of ripe plums, blackberries and black cherries wrapped in soft easy tannins. But after time, and a modicum of contemplation perhaps, other, more interesting flavors emerge – there’s a pronounced, rustic earthiness that’s unique to Riojas and separates it from other well made, reasonably priced European reds.

That earthiness evokes for me the dark world of the country’s great 17th and 18th centuries painters particularly Ribera and Zurbarán – a world quintessentially Spanish in it’s passionate mysteries.

And you get all this in an everyday bottle of wine that you can drink with thin-crust pizza or a steak frites at your local bistro.