Marko, Oxer Bastegieta 2019
91 points - Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate
Oxer Bastegieta is a Basque producer who divides his time between the family winery in the Bizkaiko Txakolina appellation (near Bilbao) and his highly personal wines in Rioja. A seasoned traveller, Oxer got into wine in 1999 when his father asked him to make a txakoli to be served in the family restaurant. The following year he bought his first vineyard. Called El Artillero (The Gunner), a very old plot located at 600m in Elvillar, in Rioja Alavesa. He now owns a total of 4.8 hectares of vines, all between 80 and 110 years old. In his early forties, Bastegieta’s approach to wine is unconventional and personal and this is visible in his striking, unique wine labels which take their inspiration from poems, songs and images.
The Basque have great respect for nature and also for the houses they live in. They even give them names. Marko is the name of Oxer ́s family house, which is surrounded by the vineyard used for this wine. Only 9,000 bottles are producer of this blend of – wait for it – 60% Hondarribi Zuri Zerratia and 40% Hondarribi Zuri. It is a more mature and serious style Txakoli with a leesy and slightly reductive character of a serious white wine. It has notes of ripe yellow fruit and a round palate with pungent flavours.