Mirando al Sur 2020: Olivier Rivière’s Viura aged in sherry butts

The other day we did a BYOB lunch (bring your own bottle) and the weather was made for a white: sunshine, a table out on the street and a thirst for something chilled with a bit of a story to it. Enter this Mirando al Sur 2020 from Olivier Rivière.

We finished lunch with five empty bottles (yes, for one lunch). And of the five, this was the one that left the longest mark.

Olivier Rivière, a Frenchman from Cognac making Rioja

Rivière grew up among the vineyards of Cognac, studied winemaking in Saint-Émilion and learnt the trade at some seriously intimidating addresses, Domaine Leroy among them (one of Burgundy’s most revered houses). In 2004 Telmo Rodríguez brought him to Rioja to convert his vineyards to biodynamics. It was meant to be a short stint. Twenty-odd years later he’s still here, and I can’t say I blame him.

In 2006 he set up on his own without owning a single vine, buying and renting old plots nobody else was paying attention to. Today Olivier Rivière makes wines like Ganko and Rayos Uva, and he’s one of the names getting people to see Rioja as a land of villages and single sites, not just Crianzas and Reservas.

75-year-old Viura and two sherry butts: Fino and Amontillado

Mirando al Sur comes from the oldest Viura vines Rivière works, over 75 years old, on the slopes of Labastida in Rioja Alavesa, at around 500 metres on clay and limestone. Hand-picked, whole-bunch pressed and fermented on its own yeasts in large oak vats.

Then comes the twist. After six months in those vats, the wine spends a year in two 600-litre butts that used to hold sherry: one Fino, one Amontillado. Hence the name, which means “looking south”. A white Rioja with one eye on Jerez, borrowing a page from the sherry playbook. (And two butts don’t go very far: do the maths.)

It’s not the only wine playing this game. With Monopole Blanco Seco Reserva, CVNE revived the old recipe of Viura with a splash of Manzanilla, and over in Tenerife Juan Francisco Fariña ages La Bota de Mateo in an old Manzanilla butt. But this is the one the critics rate highest: 95 points from James Suckling and 93 from Luis Gutiérrez at Wine Advocate. Gutiérrez makes a point I love, that every vintage comes out “more Rioja and less Sherry”. The butt gives it the accent; the vineyard does the talking.

The tasting: salt, almonds and a finish that won’t leave

The first thing you get is that salty, nutty note. You don’t expect it from a white Rioja, and it’s properly moreish: like the little dish of salted almonds that turns up with your Fino at any bar down south, only tucked inside the glass. That’s the butt at work. Behind it there’s apple peel, a hint of bitter almond and a strong chalky backbone, and that part is pure Labastida.

On the palate it’s incredibly fresh, which is no mean feat for a wine with a year and a half of ageing under its belt. Then the texture arrives: rich and weighty, filling your mouth without ever feeling heavy. And long. So long that, with four other bottles vying for attention, it was still hanging around after the rest had been forgotten.

What to drink Mirando al Sur with?

Salty, fatty things: cured ham, fried almonds, grilled fish, shellfish or an aged cheese. The acidity cleans up and the sherry-butt note builds a bridge to anything that tastes of the sea or the curing room. If there’s a cheeseboard in front of you, I’ve already said in the wine and cheese guide that a Fino with an aged cheese is out of this world. This is about as close as a still white is going to get.

Mind you, it’s not an everyday white, neither in price nor in purpose. It’s the bottle for the lunch where you want someone to raise their glass and ask what on earth we’re drinking.

Five bottles on the table. Only one left a mark.