Why it matters
The producer
The winery at Bodegas Campillo is visible from the ancient ramparts of Laguardia before you reach the gate. Julio Faustino Martínez built it on the open hillside below the medieval walls in 1990, commissioning architect Aurelio Ibarrondo to create the first architect-designed winery in Rioja on the Bordeaux château model: a working building set inside its own estate vineyards, legible as a wine producer from a distance.
Campillo is the sixth estate of Familia Martínez Zabala, a fourth-generation Spanish winemaking family whose history in Rioja dates to 1861. Their flagship house, Bodegas Faustino, is the world's leading exporter of Rioja Gran Reserva wines. Campillo was conceived as something distinct within that enterprise: a single-estate operation in Rioja Alavesa with 50 hectares of hillside vines, producing Tempranillo across the full classification ladder from young red to long-aged Gran Reserva.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Rioja Alavesa is the northernmost of Rioja's three sub-zones, separated from Rioja Alta by the Ebro river and sitting administratively within the Basque Country. The position matters for the wine. Laguardia, the sub-zone's central hill town, sits at elevation with Atlantic weather coming in from the north and a Sierra de Cantabria ridge moderating the temperature. The result in Tempranillo is firmer acidity and more aromatic lift compared with the warmer, flatter Rioja Alta and Rioja Oriental growing zones to the south and east.
The DOCa Rioja classification system gives Campillo its label architecture. Crianza requires a minimum of two years total ageing with at least one in oak. Reserva requires three years with at least one in oak. Gran Reserva requires five years total with at least eighteen months in oak. Those rules shape what ends up in each bottle and at what price.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Fifty hectares of estate vineyard in Rioja Alavesa supply all Campillo reds. The Blanco Reserva draws on Viura and Chardonnay.
Oak ageing is the principal cellar variable across the range, and the wood programme is differentiated by classification level. American oak appears in the Crianza and in the Blanco Reserva, where its broader grain contributes warm, vanilla-forward barrel character. French oak takes over as the dominant wood in the Reserva Colección and Gran Reserva, where its tighter grain means slower oxygen integration and more restrained toasty, spice notes rather than pronounced sweetness. The Gran Reserva spends a minimum of 24 months in French oak alone. That extended wood contact adds layers of vanilla, liquorice and ripe-fruit depth while rounding the tannins into the fleshy, ample palate the wine is known for.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range runs five verified bottlings from young red to long-aged Gran Reserva, with a white Reserva alongside.
El Niño de Campillo is the youngest red: intense purple in colour, with fresh black fruit, a touch of wood on the nose, and a round, clean finish. It is the lightest-touch entry in the range, showing Tempranillo in a fruit-forward register before extended oak takes hold.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Campillo Crianza. It is Tempranillo aged 12 months in oak, cherry-red with a ruby rim, and it sits at the point in the range where the fruit and the barrel are in conversation rather than one overpowering the other. Fresh cherry and red berry come in first on the nose, then sweet, warm barrel notes follow. The palate is easy-drinking but has shape: a smooth, toasted finish rather than a rough or heavy one. It is the bottle that shows what Rioja Alavesa Tempranillo tastes like when given basic oak treatment and honest vineyard material, without the weight of long ageing or the demands of a Gran Reserva.