Why it matters
The producer
Bodegas Montecillo has been making wine in Fuenmayor since 1870, when Celestino Navajas Matute founded the bodega on the left bank of the Ebro in Rioja Alta. It is the oldest winery in the town and the third-oldest in Rioja. Three generations of the Navajas family ran it before the Osborne group, best known for sherry, acquired it in 1973. The Osborne ownership changed the commercial scale without breaking the production logic: the classic range of Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva still anchors the portfolio, and the ageing cellars in Fuenmayor still hold bottles going back to 1926.
The winery now processes between three and five million kilos of grapes each year and maintains 17,000 barrels in the ageing cellars, where wines are still stacked by hand. A premium tier trades under the Viña Monty name, relaunched in 2020 to mark the 150th anniversary.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Fuenmayor sits in Rioja Alta, the western subzone of Rioja, on the left bank of the Ebro river. This is the part of the region where Atlantic weather reaches furthest inland: cooler growing seasons, higher altitude sites, and sandier soils than the clay-heavy ground of Rioja Oriental to the east. Sandy soils drain quickly and warm slowly, which pushes Tempranillo toward finer tannins and earlier natural acidity rather than the broader, more extracted character of warmer eastern parcels.
The Graciano used in the Gran Reserva comes from a different address entirely: Pradejón in Rioja Oriental, near the Ebro meander at around 360 metres altitude, on clayey soils with a more Mediterranean climate. That contrast is deliberate. Graciano grown under Mediterranean conditions produces fruit with intense colour, high natural acidity, and aromatic lift, which strengthens the blend in a way that Rioja Alta Graciano, had it been planted there, would not.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Dry-farmed, bush-trained Tempranillo on sandy Rioja Alta soils gives the Classic range its tighter tannic frame and brighter red-fruit character. Bush training without irrigation forces vines to root deeply for water, limiting yield and concentrating flavour in each cluster. At harvest, Graciano from Pradejón adds acidity and aromatic complexity to the Gran Reserva blend.
In the cellar, the Gran Reserva spends a minimum of two years in French oak barrels followed by a minimum of forty months in bottle before release. French oak imparts subtler spice and finer grain than American oak, which had historically dominated Rioja ageing. The extended bottle rest allows the tannins to knit together without requiring the wine to resolve itself in the glass after opening. The 17,000 barrels in the ageing hall and the manual stacking of bottles speak to the scale of that commitment.
Wines to know
The range in view
The Classic range moves through three levels, all red and all Tempranillo-led. The Crianza is the entry point: composition and élevage details are not published, but the style follows the Rioja norm of shorter oak and bottle ageing, producing a wine meant for earlier drinking. The Reserva steps up in depth and time: the 2017 vintage showed a concentrated mid-palate with dried cranberries, poached cherries, plums, olive tapenade, and prune paste on the flavour register, with nutmeg and cardamom as the spice thread. The tannins were linear and focused, the finish savoury and fresh. Decanter awarded it 91 points.
The Gran Reserva is the range's most committed wine. Made only in declared vintages, it blends 90% Tempranillo with 10% Graciano from Pradejón and ages for at least two years in French oak and more than forty months in bottle. The tannins are silky, polished, and velvety rather than hard or angular, and the colour runs to garnet-red with a ruby rim.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Montecillo Reserva, current vintage. It is a mid-tier Rioja red, Tempranillo-led, aged in French oak and then in bottle, and it gives a clear picture of what the house does. The red-fruit concentration, the linear tannins, the savoury finish, and the spice note from the oak are all present without requiring the patience or the occasion that the Gran Reserva asks for. The 2017 earned 91 points from Decanter and is the most documented bottle in the range. At its price point, it is one of the more honestly constructed Reservas in Rioja Alta.