Bodegas Faustino S.L.

Bodegas Faustino, located in Oyón, in the heart of Rioja Alavesa, has become one of the most renowned wineries in the region. Owning 650 hectares of the finest vineyards spread across the municipalities of Laguardia, Logroño, Mendavia, and Oyón, it is in these lands of excellent clay-limestone soil that four grape varieties thrive: Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo, and Viura.

Since 1960, when the founder’s grandson, Julio Faustino Martínez, took over the business, the winery’s range of wines has steadily expanded, offering classic wines, premium wines, barrel-fermented whites, younger whites, rosés, and Cavas. Despite their differences, all these wines share a common denominator: a meticulous selection of the grapes and a winemaking process that has always balanced tradition and innovation.

The quality of the wines is also enhanced by the region’s terroir; the excellent clay-limestone soil of La Rioja Alavesa, combined with its optimal microclimate, provides the best conditions for the growth of the most prized grape varieties used to produce the finest wines.

The timing of the harvest is crucial in the winemaking process: the grapes are picked bunch by bunch, and the old vines receive special treatment; only the most experienced harvesters visit each plot up to three times, selecting only the ripest grapes.

Later, in the cool, dark cellars of the winery, the bottles age for several years, allowing the wine to mature and refine. Bodegas Faustino’s facilities permanently house nine million bottles, which are only released when the winemakers determine they are in perfect condition for tasting.

Faustino’s winemakers travel throughout the United States in search of oak barrels of provenance. Each year at the winery they renew 17% of the 60,000 existing barrels, of which more than a third are made of French oak, and the rest of American oak.