Olivier Rivière

Olivier Rivière is taking on the challenge of breathing fresh life back into the soils, the vineyards, and the winemaking of the Côtes de Bourg. Based in Lansac, Olivier founded his organic project back in 2022, which now comprises 14 hectares. Though this ambitious undertaking is also a return to beginnings; his family is from the region of Cognac, and he completed his studies in Bordeaux.

Olivier’s formative years as a winemaker took him to Burgundy. Two years later, he moved to Rioja in 2004, where he began making his own wines and continued to flourish for the following 16 years. Desiring a return to France’s South West region, the circumstances could not have been better. He saw the first parcels available for him to purchase: 8 hectares of landscapes and slopes that constitute a mosaic of microclimates and soils. A year later, his only neighbor, who had been growing his own vines organically, offered him the 7 remaining hectares. The opportunity to cultivate the entire surface uninterrupted and unbothered by agricultural practices that might clash with his own was simply too good for Olivier to pass up.

The principal aspect of Olivier’s work is to get to know the vineyard as intimately as possible in order to represent it as faithfully as he can. To that end, he first draws on his long experience in Spain, where working with altitude, exposure, and weather is inherent to winemaking in drier and warmer regions. His benchmarks, however, remain Burgundian, as he learned from Frédéric Cossard and Bize-Leroy. Working with a geologist, he has delineated his micro-plots, along the natural shifts in subsoils and strata.

At the highest point is his flagship parcel, Le Grand Puy, which boasts an invaluable advantage of remaining cool with its northern exposure, while its incline and relative altitude keep the frosts at the foot of the hill and away from the vines. A study of the soil revealed ‘calcaire à Astéries,’ otherwise known as ‘Saint-Émilion limestone’ near the top. The soil transitions towards the plains into ‘Fronsadais molasse,’ which comprise deposits of sandstones, shales, and other conglomerates—and are distinctive of some of Bordeaux’s most prized terroirs, providing grapes with more volume. Further down, a bedrock of limestone lays full of oyster fossils.

The Côtes de Bourg has always been Merlot country, but Olivier immediately grafted Cabernet Franc and later, some Sémillon in 2024. The Cabernet Franc has given outstanding results with its first harvests. The bulk of the work leading to that focused on restructuring the soils and bringing life back to plots that had been treated aggressively for a long time. Patience is key, as the vines need to adapt to living with other organisms in the soils; the long-term mission aims to act on the landscape for more diversity and life.

All vinification is done by parcel selections. Everything is harvested by hand and sorted a second time. Macerations and fermentations occur in neutral tanks before the juice is racked for ageing in various containers adapted to the harvest’s conditions and yield. “This is wine with texture,” Olivier is quick to remind. He uses an arsenal of Burgundy, Haut-Brion, and Rioja barrels, and well as large foudres and horizontal concrete eggs to experiment with material, micro-oxygenation, and contact with the fine lees, in order to amplify the finest attributes and provide balance where it is needed.

Olivier is aware that there is a lot of noise in the background and that ‘Bordeaux-bashing’ is not over; however, things are changing in the region, and ultimately for the better. He sees Bordeaux as having been stuck in its ways when other regions listened to the needs of both their environment and of the consumers. The 2024 harvest gave him the opportunity to experiment, namely with a Blanc de Noir Merlot, and a claret blend made from direct-press and carbonic maceration, both of which will be released outside of the appellation. He is otherwise committed to the name of Côtes de Bourg, and convinced that one must defend their place.

“There is a lot of work to be done in Bordeaux, and one of the reasons that brought me here is this exciting prospect of having a new approach,” Olivier concludes. “This is the only region in France that still is in need of a winemaking revolution. Bordeaux is a historic region with historic terroir, with a classicism that is just in need of a twist!” And as his actions show, he’s here to provide it.