Producer Domaine Richaud

FRANCE, RHONE

Since the early 1980s, Marie and Marcel Richaud have joined Gaston, Marcel's father, in the family winery. The territory is that of Cairanne, a prestigious cru of the southern Rhone Valley, not far from the renowned Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The local terroir is diversified, but mainly pebbly, sandy and clayey-calcareous: all lithological matrices ideal for the vine. Year after year, Marie and Marcel distance themselves from conventional agriculture, to increasingly orient themselves towards organic management. A sensitive and responsible approach that, starting from the nineties, also eliminates all the oenological additives from the cellar, except for a thoughtful use of sulphites. In the vineyard no more systemic, but only contact products, no herbicides but tillage of the soil, short pruning and very low yields (around 35 hl / ha). This process of agronomic awareness and respect leads to official organic certification in 2008 for all 80 hectares cultivated today between Cairanne and Rasteau. From 2014 it is the turn of the children, Claire and Thomas, who take up the baton of the Domaine Richaud. The vinification is preceded by the utmost care for the collection of the raw material: manual harvesting in crates, double sorting, in the vineyard and in the cellar. Once in the cellar, the must and the new wine are treated with delicacy and skill: strictly spontaneous fermentation (no selected yeasts), with temperature control, no use of sulphites during vinification (but only, in a very measured way, at bottling ), no filtration or oenological clarification. Aging takes place in full consistency with the Rhône tradition: in large barrels or in demi-muids (400-600 liters). This is how authentic, elegant, rich and extraordinarily balanced Côtes-du-Rhône, Cairanne and Rasteau are born.