Currently making wine in both Rioja and Bordeaux, Frenchman Olivier Rivière exemplifies the new wave of small, independent producers who have reshaped Spain’s wine scene over the past two decades.
He started to work with well-known producer Telmo Rodríguez but it was not long before he started buying grapes for himself. Although he has always maintained a foothold in Rioja, he has explored projects elsewhere, including DO Arlanza (later abandoned), and, for a time, a single-vineyard Garnacha in Navarra.
In Rioja, Rivière was among the first to recognise the potential of the Alto Najerilla Valley launching his red Ganko in the early 2010s. During his early years in the area, he also worked as a consultant for Bodegas Lacus in Aldeanueva de Ebro (Rioja Oriental), producing his wines there for some time. He has since relocated to Huércanos, in the Najerilla Valley, where he has consolidated his vineyard holdings. This move involved selling his vineyards in Álava, from which he crafted notable single-vineyard wines such as Losares, Las Viñas de Eusebio and Pozo Alto up to the 2020 vintage.
The wines
Rivière currently produces three whites and four reds in Rioja. He seeks complexity and evolution in the bottle with his whites, now sourced from vineyards in Cárdenas in the Najerilla Valley. He previously bought grapes in Labastida. La Bastid (formerly called Jequitibá, (7,000 bottles, around €22,) is a blend of Viura and Garnacha Blanca aged in concrete, foudre and barrels. Trotamundos (€42), by contrast, is intended to develop in bottle, incorporating some Maturana Blanca and spending 18 months in foudre. His most complex and impressive white is Mirando al Sur ( 3,000 bottles, €72), aged in sherry butts.
Two of his red wines draw on varying proportions of Garnacha, Tempranillo and Graciano, with part of the fruit sourced form Rioja Oriental. Rayos Uva (130,000 bottles, around €12) is a light-bodied red with subtle herbaceous notes, aged briefly in concrete and stainless steel. Gabaxo, aged for just over a year in large wooden vats, offers a more serious profile.
Two of his most distinctive reds come from Cárdenas, in the Najerilla Valley. Ganko (5,000 bottles, €41), the wine that first establish Rivière’s reputation, blends Garnacha with varying proportions of Mazuelo depending on the vintage. Plaza Cuesta (just over 1,000 bottles, €70), first released in the 2022 vintage, is a single-vineyard Garnacha from a young plot planted by Rivière himself, featuring 50 different phenotypes.
For the French producer, vineyards are paramount, with a clear focus on obtaining high quality grapes. A set of small fermentation tanks (concrete and oak vats ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 litres) allow him to ferment the finest individual vineyards or village wines separately. Reds are typically fermented with stems, and ageing is carried out in large-format oak vessels.
After acquiring 10 hectares of vineyards in Côte de Bourg, on the right bank of the Dordogne River near Bordeaux, Rivière’s attention is now increasingly focusedin France. His brother Mateo oversees his projects in Rioja.