Yes it could. Back in the old days, I was quite familiar ( though not academically so) with these most excellent wines. I'm off the sauce completely for the last 15 years or so now, but I'm tempted to take one of the courses out of interest and nostalgia.
We love rioja from Spain. Complex flavor and full-bodied. A great alternative to Cabernet Sauvignon. Another alternative is Malbec from Argentina and Chile.
My favourite wine, that I can afford anyway. Though too much and the studying may well take a hit....
As I remember it, one of the nicest things about Rioja wines is historical. A disease, phylloxera, utterly destroyed the entire Bordeaux crop in France in the late 19th century. New vines had to be planted. At first sign, some growers managed to take cuttings of the few still-undamaged vines to Spain to be grafted onto native rootstocks. The Rioja you drink today is the closest thing possible to a pre-phylloxera Bordeaux of the 1800s. That's got to be part of the reason they taste so good!
