Olivier Riviere Jequitiba La Bastid Rioja Blanco 2022

Coming from France, Olivier has an innate sense of terroir. Unlike many of his peers in Rioja, he bases his cuvées not on political boundaries or the length of barrel aging but on terroir. He believes in a quality hierarchy inspired by Burgundy with generic Appellation and Village wines at the base and Premier and Grand cru wines at the top. La Bastid is a blend of Viura, Malvasia and Garnacha Blanca from nine plots of vines around Labastida in Rioja Alavesa planted at an average elevation of 500m. Olivier considers this wine his Côtes de Nuits Blanc in his own internal hierarchy of things. Before the 2016 vintage, this wine was labeled as Jequitiba.