Marcel Richaud has lead the natural wine movement from Côtes du Rhône and is renowned as a great role-model of vigneron. The wine of Marcel Richaud is characterized by the balance between stunning purity and concentration of ripe fruits. We understand intuitively with one sip that his wine is a pure transformation of the energy from the sun to wine through the soil and vines. The mix of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and various local varietals gives balance and finesse to the wine, and the vividness of grape is remained by the use of minimal or zero sulfur.
Marcel Richaud at the age of 17 in early 70's, he decided to go on his own path that is to be independent vigneron. The Richuad family had been a vine grower and sold whole crops to the cave cooperative. It was stable and profitable at that time, but young and passionate Marcel could not agree with cooperative's high yields policy. Rather Marcel was inspired from the energy of the land and convinced that the wine from Cairanne could be something special.
Marcel started with 14ha of his aunt's vineyard and later he inherited 15ha from his father in 1974, when he was 20 years old. Marcel has eliminated herbicides, pesticides and chemicals from the vinyard and has repeated trial and error in the cellar. Through the encounter with natural wines from Bourgogne and Loire, his wine-making has been simplified yet sophisticated, and he has reached the conclusion that modern techniques cannot raise the quality of wine radically, and what really important is excellent quality of grapes come from low yields, old vines on the right terroir.
The entire vineyard has been certified by ECOCERT since 2008. In 2016, Cairane was officially promoted to "Cru" of the Côtes du Rhône. Marcel's contribution is huge.
Today, Marcel Richaud became a living legend as a pioneer of natural wine in Rhône, and three children Thomas, Claire and Edith joined the domaine.
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