Hi,

While Faustino is not my cup of tea (to put it simply) they do seem to
have a broad group of customers worldwide. Classic style as it could be,
though they have introduced some "new style" wines such as "Faustino de
Autor" and "Faustino de Crianza".

Rioja, when in a classic style, displays the well known hierarchy:

- No backlabel
- Crianza backlabel
- Reserva backlabel
- Gran Reserva backlabel

while many people thinks that this is a quality grading hierarchy, I
don't think this is the right approach. The hierarchy only says how much
time the wine has spent in oak barrels and/or bottle prior to release.
It does not say much about the quality of the barrels, if they are new
or if they are as old (and dirty) as the owner.

Many big houses save their best wines to become Gran Reserva, but not
all follow this approach. In my humble opinion, Rioja Reserva are far
more balanced that Gran Reservas, even from the big houses.

To get back to your original question, I would think that Faustino VII
is a wine that should be an example of classic Rioja. And perhaps is
the kind of wine that a regular to this forum could find a bit simple.
It retails 5-6 eur ($6-7) in its country of origin.

Regarding the vintage classification, in Spain this classification is
usually done by the D.O. Council, after examining young wines from the
wineries. Since the D.O. Council is formed with people from the
wineries, you can understand that their vintage ratings don't go below
the midscale so often. I think this were the latest vintage ratings:

-1994 Excellent
-1995 Excellent
-1996 Very Good
-1997 Good
-1998 Very Good
-1999 Good
-2000 Good
-2001 Excellent

If you think that the D.O. Rioja is huge, it is not true that all 1997
were so bad as the "Good" classification suggests. And not all the 1994
wines were so truly excellent as the thing shows. Producer is important
not only in Burgundy g

Best from Spain,

Santiago