Winemaker Notes
Ripe fruit, cedar and clove spice aromas. Rich red and black fruit flavors, compote, cedar and vanilla flavors hints of cinnamon and clove spice. Long, rich finish.
Pairs well with all kinds of meat dishes, mushrooms, ham, medium-aged cheeses and berry desserts.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Juicy and expressive Rioja with some dark spices, black earth and a hint of peppercorn to the cherries and plums. Fresh and bright on the palate with a medium body rounded by fine-grained tannins. Succulent and long. Consistent quality. The first year that there is some maturana in the blend. Drink now, but can hold well, too.
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Wine Enthusiast
This dark ruby-colored wine offers aromas of Luxardo cherry and toasted baking spices. It is very spicy at first sip as flavors of clove and mint leaf with a touch of black pepper hit the taste buds, followed by blackberry, cherry and raspberry flavors. Muscular tannins are balanced out by well-integrated acidity that stays around for a while.
Best Buy
In the mid 1800s, Eleuterio Martinez Arzok took his first steps toward establishing himself as a producer and merchant of wines from the Rioja region of Spain. He started out by selling his wines in the Rioja and Basque regions, direct from the barrel. Much has changed since then and the winery he founded has since become known as one of the premier fine wine producers of the Rioja region.
In the late 1950s, his similarly adventurous descendant, Julio Faustino Martinez, launched the family-owned label in both national and international markets. Today, Bodegas Faustino is Rioja's largest exporter of Gran Reserva wines. The winner of numerous awards and gold medals in international competitions and tastings, Bodegas Faustino is a proud custodian of the Rioja region's growing international reputation as a source of truly world-class fine wines.
With 1600 acres of its own vineyards, Faustino is self-sufficient in producing its Reserva and Gran Reserva wines. The vineyards are located in the upper part of Rioja Alavesa at an altitude of between 1500 and 1800 feet. The climate is cool, influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, and the vines thrive in the chalky soil. The state-of-the-art Faustino winery has a stock of 45,000 barriques, 80% of which are American oak. The winery maintains a permanent stock of 9 million bottles of Reserva and Gran Reserva wines.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.