Domaine Richaud is widely considered to be the finest producer in the appellation Cairanne and has elevated this village to one of the best terroirs in the Côtes-du-Rhône. Marcel Richaud, fifth generation grower, founded the estate in 1974 after making the decision from an early age to become an independent producer, estate bottling his wines rather than selling to the coop. At 17 years old, he told his father of his vision to make wines with their family name rather than growing and selling fruit which was a much more stable form of income in the 1960s and 70s. He dropped out of high school to study viticulture, understanding that his connection to the vineyards in Cairanne would be his life’s work. Marcel was just 19 when he began farming his aunt’s vines and slowly created a following for his wines. Over time, he took back much of the land his father farmed before him. Of course this path was a risk in the 1970s, but Marcel is no stranger to risk being an avid hang glider even now into his 70s!

When his father retired, it allowed Marcel to take over more of the family property and save up a bit of money to reinvest; he built a proper, underground cellar and purchased some exceptional parcels, high up in the hills above the village of Cairanne. Eventually these old vine parcels became his flagship wine, L’Ebrescade. Richaud was an early proponent of low intervention winemaking talking with colleagues from other regions about the use of sulfur, fining, filtration and most importantly, natural viticulture. He understood that respecting and improving work in the vineyard was most important. While Marcel was making low intervention wines before the Natural Wine movement existed, he has never been dogmatic in his approach. He understands that the same winemaking cannot be applied year after year and the winemaker must adapt to the conditions of nature. Sometimes an addition of sulfur is necessary, but whatever the case, it’s important to try to stick to his ideal and philosophy which is to not alter the expression of the fruit.

In the 1990s, Richaud became a member of the Association des Vins Naturels and emerged as both one of the leaders of the natural wine movement and an influential advocate for the elevation of Cairanne to full appellation status. Today, Marcel along with his children Thomas and Claire continue to produce lifted, beautiful expressions of the southern Rhône. In the same forwarding thinking and adaptive spirit as their their father, Thomas and Claire acquired high elevation parcels near the Dentelles de Montmirail where they have planted grape varieties such as Counoise, Consult and Albarino which they believe bring added freshness to their wines as they face the continual challenges of climate change. 

For the vinification, all the wines are destemmed and vinified separately, by variety. Fermentations take place with indigenous yeast in cement, with macerations between 14 and 21 days, followed by long élévage in large, neutral oak casks. After 12 months in oak, the wines are blended and aged for an additional 8-12 months before bottling. The Cairanne bottlings are often produced without SO2, though Richaud bottles a portion of the production with a very small amount of sulfur for export. The wines are never fined or filtered. These are true vins vivants and are extraordinarily drinkable thanks to the lighter touch in the cellar, old, goblet trained vines and higher elevation plantings. Richaud uses a larger percentage of Mourvèdre than technically allowed by the Cairanne appellation and touch of Counoise, which brings tension and lift. The top wine, L’Ebrescade is from very old vines, high up above the village of Cairanne at 330 meters, with a mixture of galet roulés, the famous rocky soil from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and clay. These are honest, transportive, lifted, and delicious wines from a beautiful corner of the Côtes-du-Rhône!