Martínez Lacuesta: The Caress of Wine
Javier Bañales sums up the DNA of" wines designed for the times".
07 Mar 2025 | Martínez Lacuesta
Making wine, talking about wine, living wine… For us, it is much more than a profession. It is a philosophy of life. A way of understanding time and respecting it, because in each bottle is hidden the heartbeat of the years. We believe in finesse, in the classic, in what we like to call “the caress of wine”: that sensation that only the passage of time can give us, where each sip becomes a reflection of the history we carry inside.
Our job is not just to make wine, but to refine it, to guide it in its evolution as if we were potters modelling a piece with precision. We do not seek oenological vigorexia or opulence, but rather elegance, subtlety, the ability to excite without stridency. In the recent Underground Tasting, which we had the pleasure of starring in thanks to Nuevecuatrouno and Calado de Ruavieja, we shared four of our jewels, wines that carry in their DNA our obsession for longevity, freshness and precision. Wines designed for time and not for haste.
CAMPEADOR VIURA 2023: THE PRECISION OF CLASSICISM
If there is one thing we would like to do with this wine, it is to be able to keep it for another year, let it refine in the bottle and let time dress it up in its best clothes. But life is like that and there are wines that are released into the world sooner than we would like. This is one of them.
This wine is the result of our obsession with Viura, a variety that is sometimes considered neutral, but which we defend as one of the most beautiful and resilient in the world. Because Viura is like that: the more you challenge it, the more it gives you. The more you work it with wood, with time and oxygen, the more it grows.
It is a wine that follows the tradition of the historic Rioja whites, fermented partially with skins, with a vinification that seeks to give it more dimension and depth. The nose is vibrant and crisp, sharper and more complex.
Aged in a 500-litre vat with a French oak body and acacia tops, this is a silky-textured wine, one of those whites that are not only for drinking now, but also for cellaring. Because if there is one thing we have learned in this house, it is that time is not an enemy, but the best ally of great wines.
When you taste it, you feel that crisp freshness, that vibrant acidity that gives the wine the ability to fly through time. We like to say that a good white wine should have the balance of a Goya painting: not one brushstroke too many or too few. It is pure precision .
It is not a classic Rioja white. It is not an immediate wine. It is a white wine for ageing, a gastronomic wine that needs time and oxygen. Today it is pure nerve and tension, but over the years it will become silky, with that elegance that only time grants.
CAMPEADOR RESERVA 2019: THE ELEGANCE OF TIME
Campeador is one of those brands that carries the weight of history in its name. Registered in 1916 with the intention of making champagne and red wines, it has evolved over the years without losing its essence. We have always followed the inspiration of what in Rioja Alta was called the Burgundian vision, seeking wines with balance, depth and freshness.
The 2019 vintage marked a turning point in our winery. We went a step further in the construction of a wine with an extraordinary ageing capacity. To do so, we opted for a blend that combines the best of two worlds: 50% Tempranillo from Rioja Alta and 50% Garnacha, but with an important nuance. Within this Garnacha, 35% comes from Rioja Alta, providing tension, straightness and freshness, while 15% is from Rioja Oriental, adding volume and structure.
As for the ageing process, each variety has followed its own path. The Garnacha has matured for 28 months in third and fourth use American oak barrels, seeking refinement without losing the fruit. The Tempranillo, on the other hand, has spent 32-33 months in barrels, providing depth and complexity.
The result is a wine that, from the very first moment, takes us back to the origin of Campeador. We taste it and we feel that it is him. It has finesse, balance and a precise fragrance, with a perfect integration of wood and a freshness that keeps it alive. On the palate, it unfolds layers and layers of nuances, with a silky texture that fills without weighing it down. And the best thing is its finish: it is not a wine that disappears, but leaves a lingering echo, always returning to the fruit.
We know that this wine is designed for cellaring, that in years to come it will clearly show its greatness. But we also know that today it is already a foretaste of what it will be: a jewel not only to drink, but also to remember.
HINIA 2015: LA CARICIA
Hinia is an identity of its own within our winery. A wine born from the fine precision of classicism, the search for purity, cleanliness and perfect texture. In the vineyards of Haro, we found fossils of prehistoric shells called Seostinia, and that is where the name of this wine came from, we wanted it to have a life of its own within our history.
Often, when we talk about classic Rioja reserva wines, we think of wines with excess wood, heavy and old, we think of wines with excess of wood, heavy and old wines. But that is not what true classicism is. Classicism is precision, balance, finesse. And that is what Hinia 2015 represents.
This vintage, which is now on the market, is a testament to the value of fine-tuning in the bottle. We didn’t have Hinia 2014 because we didn’t want to force a vintage that didn’t suit us. But in 2015 we found a perfect balance, a wine that from the beginning showed a straightforward tension, a vibrant freshness and an exceptional ageing capacity.
On the nose, we sense ripe black fruit, aromas of candied fruit and incredibly well-integrated oak. It is a wine with depth, but also with lightness, with that Bordeaux style that makes it direct, fine, without artifice. If Campeador has more layers and volume, Hinia is more linear, more slender, with a freshness that remains lively in the mouth and invites you to keep drinking.
Hinia 2015 was bottled in 2018 and has spent almost seven years in bottle, letting time do its work. And that time has been its best conductor, fine-tuning each element to achieve total harmony.
Hinia 2015 is a wine that you can feel. It speaks to us of calm, of balance, of that caress that only great wines know how to leave. One of the great creations of our winery in recent years.
FAMILY COLLECTION 2012: LIVING HERITAGE
In the world of wine there are fashions, there are trends that come and go, but there is one thing that remains: the legacy. In Rioja we have a history that we cannot lose, wines that have stood the test of time and continue to be benchmarks, not because they remain anchored in the past, but because they have been able to evolve without losing their essence. The classics, in the end, were the avant-gardists of their time.
Colección Familia nace con ese espíritu. Este vino es un homenaje a la identidad de nuestra bodega, a esos grandes reservas históricos que marcaron un estilo y que han quedado grabados en la memoria de quienes aman el vino. If you open a photo album of our winery, you will see labels from 1922, 1928, 1970… and they all tell the same story. We wanted to pay tribute to this tradition and give this wine the place it deserves in our family. place it deserves in our family.
The 2012 vintage is a perfect example of what patience and precision mean. A wine that has waited for its time, which is now on the market after 13 years of evolution. The difference with Hinia is not only in the vintage, but also in the blend: Tempranillo is the main protagonist here (75%), but with 20% Graciano and 5% Mazuelo, which gives it structure, freshness and a vibrant tension in the mouth.
In the glass, we find a clean, elegant, balanced nose, where the fruit is still present, but intertwined with notes of tobacco, spices and that depth that only time can give. On the palate, the sensation is one of eternity. There is still freshness, still juiciness, but at the same time, there is serenity. The Graciano brings that firm embrace in the middle of the mouth, the acidity keeps the wine alive, and the finish is refined, subtle, without edges.
Family Collection 2015 represents our long-standing philosophy: precision, cleanliness, elegance, classicism. Returning to our roots is not nostalgia, it is reaffirming what we are. . In a world where everything is moving too fast, having a 2012 Gran Reserva in your glass is like opening a book of history of history and reading in each sip the true meaning of Rioja.
