Summary
Bodegas Faustino in the Alavese village of Oyón is one of the best-known houses in Rioja – and worldwide probably the face of the Spanish Gran Reserva. Family-owned since 1861, the estate today farms around 650 hectares of its own vineyards, making it one of the largest vineyard owners in the region. What made it famous is the Faustino I Gran Reserva: a frosted, almost stone-like Burgundy bottle with a gold wire mesh and the portrait from a Rembrandt painting on the label. It is regarded as the best-selling Gran Reserva in the world. The style behind it is deliberately classic – long cask ageing, long bottle ageing, nothing showy.
History
The story begins in 1861, when Eleuterio Martínez Arzok settled in Oyón and acquired a manor house together with its vineyards. For decades the wine was sold as was then customary: in barrel, to merchants who bottled it elsewhere.
The decisive turning point came around 1930 with Faustino Martínez Pérez de Albéniz, who gave the brand its name. He was among the first in Rioja to bottle his wine within the region itself and market it under his own name – a step that considerably strengthened Rioja's idea of origin. His son Julio Faustino Martínez built the house into an international brand in the third generation from the late 1950s onwards. That period also saw the birth of the Faustino I, V and VII ranges and of the unmistakable bottle.
Today the fourth generation is in charge: the sisters Carmen Martínez Zabala (president) and Lourdes Martínez Zabala (CEO) lead the group, which has moved on from its former name Grupo Faustino to become Familia Martínez Zabala and includes further wineries in several Spanish regions alongside Faustino.
Location & Terroir
Oyón lies in Rioja Alavesa, the Basque part of Rioja, only a few kilometres north-east of Logroño on the left bank of the Ebro. The Sierra de Cantabria to the north shields the vineyards from the damp Atlantic winds, so the climate here is mild but distinctly continental in character: warm, dry summers, cool nights and a long, even ripening period.
The chalky clay soils of the Alavesa are formative. They store water without letting the vines grow too vigorously, and they give the wines that combination of fine fruit, present acidity and firm tannin backbone which makes long cask ageing possible in the first place. The estate's own parcels are spread across four municipalities – Oyón and Laguardia in the Alavesa, Logroño in Rioja Alta and Mendavia in Rioja Oriental – giving the house access to different altitudes and ripening dates.
Style & Philosophy
Faustino stands for the classic Rioja school: Tempranillo as the backbone, complemented by Graciano for acidity and aromatics and Mazuelo for tannin and structure, with Viura for the whites. Vinification is free of stylistic extravagance; the real signature is created in the cellar through time.
The house holds one of the largest barrel stocks in Rioja – figures range between roughly 50,000 and 60,000 casks depending on the source – as well as a bottle reserve running into the millions. According to the estate, its Gran Reservas age around twice as long as DOCa Rioja requires. The result are wines that arrive on the market fully mature: with notes of dried red fruit, leather, tobacco, vanilla and coconut from American oak, silky tannins and a drinking window that carries far across the years. The wines typically sit at around 13.5% alcohol, so under 14% by volume.
Notable Sites & Wines
Unlike single-vineyard estates, Faustino's focus lies on a clearly tiered brand and ageing hierarchy:
- Faustino I Gran Reserva – the flagship in the frosted Burgundy bottle with gold wire mesh; the label shows Rembrandt's portrait of the Amsterdam merchant Nicolaes van Bambeeck
- Gran Faustino I Gran Reserva – the top selection from outstanding vintages, released only after around two decades of ageing
- Faustino V Reserva – the house's classic Reserva, also made as a white and a rosé
- Faustino VII – the youthful, fruit-forward entry level
- Faustino Crianza as well as whites from Viura and Chardonnay and cava from the group
The vineyards themselves lie around Oyón and Laguardia, where the house is among the largest owners, supplementing its own harvest with long-term contracts with growers in the region.
Awards
Bodegas Faustino was named European Winery of the Year 2025 by the US magazine Wine Enthusiast – one of the industry's most prominent honours. In The World's Most Admired Wine Brands 2024, the ranking published by the British trade magazine Drinks International, the Faustino brand came in 19th. The house has also been recognised for wine tourism within the Great Wine Capitals Best Of Wine Tourism Awards.
Individual wines are regularly rated highly as well: the Gran Faustino I Gran Reserva 2004, released after around twenty years in the cellar, received 96 points from Wine Enthusiast, while the Faustino I Gran Reserva 2014 was rated 95 points there. Commercially the record is even more striking: according to the estate, more than 76 million bottles of Faustino I have been sold over the past 50 years or so, and the wines are listed in around 47 countries.