List of products by manufacturer Olivier Rivière

Born in Cognac, Olivier Rivière studied oenology in Montagne Saint-Emilion before working with Elian Da Ros in Côtes du Marmandais and Lalou Bize-Leroy (Domaine Leroy, former co-manager of Romanée-Conti) in Burgundy. In 2004, he put aside his plans to buy vines in Fitou when Telmo Rodriguez, a leading figure in Spanish wine, invited him to Rioja to help him convert his vineyards to biodynamic viticulture, a farming method that Olivier has mastered perfectly.

Conquered by the terroirs and the old vines of the region, it was in 2006 that he decided to set up his own business and rent a small plot of vines. He now owns 10 hectares of vines, which he complements with leased vines and the purchase of grapes. All the vineyards are cultivated in biodynamic or organic agriculture. The soils are mainly limestone and clay on a sandstone base, sometimes sandy or gravelly.

In the cellar, the work is resolutely Burgundian. The vinification is not very interventionist, the grapes are often destemmed, but sometimes whole, depending on the grape variety and the vintage, and the fermentations are done without any input except that the wines are minimally sulphited at bottling. The wines are aged in vats, tuns or demi-muids, with very little new wood in order to preserve the freshness of the fruit.

While those of the region are typically hierarchical according to a more or less long maturation (joven, crianza, reserva, gran reserva), Olivier's cuvées are inspired by the Burgundian model and its specific classifications for each terroir (generic appellation, communal, premier cru and grand cru).

As an aside: when phylloxera - the dastardly vine-eating aphid - attacked the Bordeaux vineyards in the 1860s, the Bordeaux winegrowers, as good businessmen, had to look for wines from other regions to supply their markets. By injecting capital and sharing their know-how, they contributed to revolutionising the style and quality of the wines of Rioja, which at the time was producing large volumes of piquette to supply the peasant and the worker. One hundred and fifty years later, Olivier Rivière is making wines whose frank and fruity expression, ardour and natural character stand out from the style now anchored in tradition and of which Lopez de Heredia represents the quintessence.