Familia Martínez Zabala

Bodegas Campillo presents María La Viuda 2021 at the Guggenheim Museum to more than 100 hospitality professionals

Bodegas Campillo presents María La Viuda 2021 at the Guggenheim Museum to more than 100 hospitality professionals

In 1991, as Bilbao began embarking on its major urban transformation, Bodegas Campillo (Laguardia) was chosen as the venue for the final agreement between the Basque Government and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation that would make the construction of the museum in the city possible. Julio Faustino Martínez, then president of Familia Martínez Zabala, signed as a witness to this historic moment.

The connection between the two spaces continued years later. Campillo Reserva 1991, produced and stored at the winery that same year, was served six years later during the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Since then, Campillo and the museum have maintained a symbolic connection based on the same idea: the union of wine, architecture, culture and territory.

Almost three decades after the museum’s inauguration, Bodegas Campillo has returned to this setting to present Campillo María La Viuda 2021, one of its most personal and distinctive wines. The event brought together hospitality professionals around a wine born from the vineyard, family heritage and a way of understanding wine through patience, origin and excellence.

Campillo María La Viuda 2021 takes its name from Heredad María La Viuda, an estate owned by the Martínez Zabala family for more than 170 years, located in Laguardia, Rioja Alavesa. The wine comes from a high-altitude vineyard in the El Monte de Laguardia area, where rocky soils with pronounced minerality bring character and depth to the grapes.

Made primarily from Tempranillo with a small percentage of Graciano, Campillo María La Viuda 2021 is hand-harvested and undergoes cold maceration to encourage aromatic extraction. It is then aged for 21 months in new barrels, 95% French oak and 5% American oak, before being further refined in the bottle for a year and a half.

This first vintage has been awarded a Gran Bacchus de Oro at the Bacchus Awards, one of the most important wine competitions on the international scene, organised by the Spanish Union of Tasters. The Gran Bacchus de Oro medal is awarded only to wines achieving the competition’s highest scores, placing Campillo María La Viuda 2021 among the most outstanding entries in the competition. In this edition, only five wines from the Rioja Qualified Designation of Origin were included among the Gran Bacchus de Oro winners.

With this presentation, Bodegas Campillo reaffirms its connection with Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum, while also reaffirming its commitment to creating wines that express the character of Rioja Alavesa from a contemporary, precise perspective deeply rooted in the vineyard.