Wine By Nine

Red Wine by Bodegas Campillo from Rioja, Spain. Bodegas Campillo was built in 1990 by Julio Faustino Martinez, the owner of Bodegas Faustino, for the purpose of creating limited production, hand-crafted wines. The wines come from a 125-acre vineyard in the Laguardia region of the Rioja Alavesa. These are traditionally styled Riojas in the best sense of that word. The 1994 Gran Reserva is medium ruby with a classy nose of cedar and vanilla, red and black fruits. On the palate this elegant wine is complete and seamless with sweet fruit and complexity of flavor. Perhaps this should not be surprising because 1994 was an outstanding vintage in Rioja (the best before 2001) and Campillo was able to take advantage. The wine is drinking splendidly now and should easily last for another 10 years. -The Wine Advocate