Meet Rodolfo Bastida

CEO of Bodegas Ramón Bilbao and Rioja oenologist

Rodolfo Bastida stumbled into the world of wine by chance, though his family owned a farm in the Rioja region. After graduating in agricultural engineering, Bastida started working for a company in the wine sector as a technician. Here he developed a love of characterful wines and an obsession with experimenting, which eventually brought him to winemaking.

After taking a Master’s degree in oenology and viticulture, he joined Bodegas Bretón, where he spent eight years gaining vital experience of winemaking at this expanding winery. In 1999, at the age of just 31, he was appointed CEO at Ramón Bilbao, where he immediately implemented a major renovation of the winery and introduced an innovative new approach to its wine production.

Bastida believes that anyone with good vines can produce wine. So to stand out from the crowd it’s vital to pay attention to detail and to focus on the quality of your grapes, by carefully choosing the right land, with the perfect sunlight exposure and selecting the right grape variety to plant there.

‘Winemaking could be compared to painting,’ says Bastida. ‘We can use a fat brush and one colour with a boring uninteresting result or we can use a fine brush with different colours and different details such as depth, light and shade, to bring character and complexity.’