2011 | Olivier Riviere | Basquevanas

Beautiful wine! Very good oxidative nose. A light-bodied blend. Real notes of nuts, but fresh. Nice acidity, length is long. Yeasty and nutty character and the chalky tannins and dry mouthfeel of the limestone soils. Well drinkable. Definitely worth tasting!

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: I almost thought I was tasting a white from the Jura when I put my nose in the glass of the golden colored 2011 Basquenavas, a 50/50 blend of Albillo and Palomino from different plots of very old, small vineyards on stony soils in the appellation of Arlanza. The explanation came when I read the technical sheet, which revealed that the wine had been aged under a veil of flor yeasts for some 70 months in barrel, so a truly biologically aged white with the funky, yeasty and nutty character and the chalky tannins and dry mouthfeel of the limestone soils. This is a unique, characterful wine that he has not been able to repeat ever since, and even in this, the only vintage produced, he could only fill some 230 bottles. It was bottled in August 2017.

Producer Information

Currently making wine in Rioja, Arlanza and Navarra, Frenchman Olivier Rivière is a good example of the new wave of young, small producers who have emerged in Spain over the last decade.He started to work with well-known producer Telmo Rodríguez but it didn’t take him long to start buying grapes for himself. Over the last few years, Rivière has also managed to purchase some distinctive vineyards in different regions which he vinifies separately following a Burgundian approach. His first production came from El Quemado in Covarrubias, a lovely and remote valley in Ribera del Arlanza appellation in Burgos (Castilla y León). Alto Redondo followed in Navarra with some recent purchases in Rioja. Olivier consults for Bodegas Lacus in Aldeanueva de Ebro (Rioja Baja); it is at these facilities where he makes his wines. For Olivier vineyards come first, focused as he is in obtaining high quality grapes. Small fermentation tanks (cement and oak vats) ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 litres enable him to ferment separately either top vineyards or village wines. He usually ferments his reds with stems and he always uses large barrels (300-500 litres) to age his wines.In Rioja Olivier sources his grapes from different areas; old Viura from Labastida for his complex, barrel fermented white El Bastid (formerly called Jequitibá, about €18 in Spain, 7,000 bottles) and a striking and profound wine called Mirando al Sur (only 600 bottles) which literally translates as “Looking South” given that it is aged in sherry butts.

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