Domaine Marcel Richaud

Domaine Richaud is in the heart of the Cairanne cru in the southern Rhône valley. Marcel Richaud, a fifth-generation vine grower boldly decided, back in 1974 at the tender age of 20, to leave the local co-operative and start to produce his own wines.

Today, as he considers retirement, he has been joined by his three children, Edith, Claire and Thomas. The estate is now some 75 ha including a small amount they rent. The vineyards have been certified organic since 2008 and they also follow some biodynamic principles though they are not accredited. Their winery was built in 1998 of stone construction eschewing the use of concrete. The harvest is all done by hand, quite an undertaking for an estate this size. The grapes sorted twice, once in the vineyard then again when they arrive at the winery. This is an estate that uses minimal intervention, only natural yeasts, the wines are un-fined and un-filtered and only see a small amount of sulphur just before bottling. They also do a much shorter extraction as Marcel believes that a long extraction masks the terroir and makes for unnecessarily big wines. The results are a very pure expression of their terroir and vintage. The Domaine also champions the use of less widely planted varieties, such as Counoise as they believe its natural freshness and lower alcohol levels make for better drinking wines.