2016 Olivier Rivière "Cadastro" Arlanza Castilla y León

Deep garnet. Mineral- and smoke-accented dark berry, cherry cola and floral scents show fine clarity and spicy lift. Well-concentrated and chewy in texture, offering sweet blackberry, cherry preserve and licorice flavors and hints of spicecake and candied flowers. Closes on an appealingly sweet note, with slow-building tannins and strong, smoky persistence. (JR)

A Frenchman by birth, Olivier Rivière was born in Cognac and later studied enology in Bordeaux. After working in both Burgundy and Bordeaux, he seized an opportunity in 2004 to work with the famed Telmo Rodríguez in Spain, helping to convert his vineyards to biodynamic farming. Rivière fell in love with the ancient, own-rooted vines of northern Spain, and unable to afford land of his own in Rioja, he began sourcing fruit from old-vine parcels in some of the region’s lesser-known corners. One of these was Arlanza, a tiny appellation tucked between Rioja and Ribera del Duero that remains remarkably under the radar despite sharing many of the same attributes as its more famous neighbors: high-altitude vineyards, a continental climate, limestone and clay soils, and old-vine Tempranillo. Here, Rivière found exactly what he was looking for: very old vines capable of producing wines with both concentration and freshness. As you might expect from someone with a Burgundy background, site-specific terroir is everything to Rivière, far more important than appellation boundaries or time spent in oak. The 2016 “Cadastro” Arlanza is an excellent example of this philosophy: neither overly extracted nor oak-driven, it is energetic and expressive, with loads of upfront plum, orange peel and fig alongside savory dried herbs and licorice. A small amount of Garnacha interplanted in the vineyards adds juicy red cherry and strawberry notes, while several years of bottle age have softened the tannins. For lovers of Rioja and Ribera del Duero, Arlanza is a region worth exploring, and wines like this prove that you can get the old-vine character, intensity and complexity of those more famous regions without paying a premium for name recognition. This is simply an incredible deal!