A new player in Rioja, Oxer Bastegieta is a Basque producer who divides his time between the family winery in the Bizkaiko Txakolina appellation and his highly personal wines in Rioja.
A seasoned traveller, Oxer got into wine in 1999 when his father asked him to make a txakoli to be served in the family restaurant in Kortezubi (Bizkaia) from a one-hectare plot he had planted nearby. Bastegieta discovered Rioja soon after, when he took a master's degree in Wine Growing and Oenology in Laguardia, in the heart of Rioja Alavesa. He was captivated by the striking landscape set against the imposing mountains of Sierra Cantabria and decided to move to this picturesque village in 2009.
The following year he bought his first vineyard. Called El Artillero (The Gunner), it is a very old plot located at 600m in Elvillar, also in Rioja Alavesa. Oxer currently grows 4.8 hectares divided in 16 plots in the villages of Leza, Navaridas, Elciego, San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Laguardia and Elvillar, as well as Camprovín in the Najerilla valley. One of these plots in Laguardia was planted using a keyline design, a landscaping technique used in permaculture to optimize resources. It is here where he plans to build a winery in the future. He is also determined to plant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on an experimental basis in a vineyard he has acquired at a higher elevation on the slopes of the Sonsierra.
In his mid forties, Bastegieta’s approach to wine is unconventional and personal and this is visible in his striking, unique wine labels. Taking inspiration from poems, songs and images, these labels are the result of working closely with the award-winning design agency Calcco from Logroño.
Txakoli range
In the Bizkaiko Txakolina appellation, Oxer makes the family white Marko (€12) whose label features the rock paintings found on the nearby Santimamiñe Caves. His own wines start with Marko Gure Arbasoak (“our ancestors” in Basque, €28, 12,000 bottles), a vibrant, sharp blend of almost equal parts of Hondarrabi Zuri Zerratia (Petit Courbou) and Hondarrabi Zuri with 20% of Izkiota Ttipia (Petit Manseng). Fermentation starts in stainless steel tanks and ends in 500-litre seasoned oak barrels where the wine stays for seven months -no doubt it sets new heights for oak-aged txakoli in the area.
Marko Late Harvest (900 bottles, €30) is an interesting sweet wine made with grapes that are picked in mid-November. This wine is released only on occasional vintages. Labels are inspired by the large colony of birds in the natural enclave of Urdaibai where the vineyards are located. While Gure Arbasoak includes a quote from a Basque song, the sweet wine features a verse from The Crown, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
Also in Kortezubi Bastegieta produces Terlegiz (1,200 bottles, €40), which is a blend of 40% Hondarribi Zuri Zerratia, 40% Hondarribi Zuri, 10% Izkiriota Ttippia and 10% Izkiriota Handia (Gros Manseng) from the oldest vines and is aged for seven months in foudres. Other limited releases are Marko Skin (1,000 bottles, €23) with eight days of skin contact and Marko Loretxoak (1,000 bottles, €30) aged under a layer of yeast in Jerez butts.
Rioja wines
Production in Rioja is close to 20,000 bottles. Using grapes from Lapuebla de Labarca and Laguardia planted on stony soils, he makes his entry-level red Matalaz (9,600 bottles, €22), which undergoes semi-carbonic maceration in large vats where it is also aged for about six months. The white range starts with Iraun (“to endure” in Basque, 1,900 bottles, €33), a blend of Viura, Garnacha Blanca and Malvasía made with the white grapes from El Artillero vineyard. Winemaking is similar to txakoli except for the fact that amphorae are used for fermentations -Sherry butts might be added in the future.
Suzzane (3,000 bottles, €40), intentionally spelled with two “z”, has a label that evokes Oxer’s relationship with women and is inspired by a Leonard Cohen song. Inside the bottle there is a wonderfully vibrant, deep and mineral Garnacha from Cárdenas (Alto Najerilla valley).
Meanwhile, Kalamity (around 2,600 bottles, €115) combines the best from El Artillero and Cárdenas. “I wanted to mix the chalky, inky notes of Rioja Alavesa with the floral, mineral style you get on the right bank of the Ebro river in Rioja Alta,” Oxer explains. The label was inspired on Mexican folklore celebrating the Day of the Dead. “There is calamity inside all of us,” he says. The quote in this case comes from Shakesperare’s The Raigne of King Edward the Third. In 2022, Oxer also launched the first vintage of Kalamity white (2,800 bottles, €115), which blends white grapes from the same vineyards as the red together with younger vines of Maturana Blanca and Garnacha Blanca. The 2023 vintage is all freshness, purity and elegance in equal measure; blind, it could easily be mistaken for Burgundy.
The fresh, elegant and fluid red Tartalo (1,500 bottles, €130) comes from an old vineyard planted with Tempranillo and some Viura and Graciano in El Barranco de San Julián in chalky soils. It is fermented in different vessels and is later aged in used 600-litre casks. On the label there is a picture of Tartalo, a cyclops character in Basque mythology, who evokes the spiritual world.
Other red wines in the ample Bastegieta portfolio in Rioja are Ahari (3,400 bottles, €35), which blends grapes from Elvillar and Laguardia and displays a more classic style; Mantonni (1,800 bottles, €55) with younger vines planted around his house in Laguardia and blended with grapes from other villages in Rioja Alavesa and Buruzagi (900 bottles, €95), mainly old Garnacha from Camprovín with some Monastel and white grapes at 800 m elevation. Finally, Otto (2,000 bottles, €35) is a rosé that mixes Camprovín grapes, grown in ferrous clay soils, with white and red Rioja Alavesa fruit, and is aged in 600 litre barrels for 10 months.
In the Toro DO, Bastegieta manages 2.5 hectares of old vines, mainly Tempranillo and some Albillo Mayor, planted in sandy soils with quartz, with which he makes Kuusu (3,800 bottles, €95). Deep with floral and violet notes, it is lighter and fresher than the usual style in the area. Like the rest of his wines, it is fermented with yeasts from the vineyard and in this case, it is aged in 500- and 600-litre barrels for 10 months.