Bodegas Bhilar

Bodegas Bhilar is a small Rioja Alavesa estate in Elvillar de Álava, run by David Sampedro Gil and his American wife Melanie Hickman (Melanie also runs the parallel Struggling Vines project, whose flagship Phinca Hapa is named after her late dog). David founded the winery in 1999; first commercial bottlings followed in 2003. Around sixteen hectares of low-yielding parcels (around 3,000-3,500 kg per hectare) in Rioja Alavesa, organic from the start and Demeter biodynamic since 2021. The family switched from tractors to horses in 2014.

A new gravity-fed, off-grid cellar opened in 2016 - solar and wind powered, underground, with concrete tanks as the primary vessels. The cellar template is unfussy: indigenous yeasts, concrete and large-format wood, little to no small-barrel oak signature.

The lineup: village-level Bhilar Blanco and Bhilar Tinto; the Phinca single-vineyard series (Abejera, Lali, La Revilla, Hapa); the Lágrimas de Bhilar varietal showcases, isolating grapes rarely bottled solo in Rioja (Graciano in red, Garnacha for the Rosado); plus a Navarra-sourced Garnacha called Pasolasmonjas from San Martín de Unx, and a sister-label sibling Sasikume Bastardo under the Etérea Kripan label (Melanie's own brand, sharing the Bhilar facility - almost half of the joint vineyard project is hers).