Olivier Rivière
A Frenchman from Cognac who came to Rioja in 2004 to work on biodynamics and stayed to make old-vine wines.
Olivier Rivière grew up in Cognac country, studied winemaking in Montagne-Saint-Émilion and cut his teeth at estates as different as Domaine Leroy, Elian da Ros and Frédéric Cossard. In 2004 Telmo Rodríguez brought him to Rioja to switch his vineyards over to biodynamics, and what was meant to be a stint turned into a life: in 2006 he started his own project without owning a single vine.
These days he farms old plots across Rioja Alavesa, Rioja Alta and Rioja Baja, plus Arlanza, with no herbicides and no shop-bought yeasts. His wines (Ganko, Rayos Uva, La Bastid, Mirando al Sur) look at Rioja through Burgundian eyes: village and single-site wines, with very little time for textbook oak ageing.
