At seventeen, Marcel Richaud told his father he wanted to be a vigneron indépendant. He started with 14 hectares of his aunt's vines and made his first vintage at nineteen in a cellar with no roof. A fifth-generation grower, he founded his estate in 1974 and went on to become one of the defining producers of the southern Rhône.
Backstory
Richaud is counted among the founders of the natural wine movement, alongside figures like Pierre Overnoy, Marcel Lapierre, and Pierre Breton. In the 1990s he joined the Association des Vins Naturels and became a leading advocate for elevating Cairanne to full appellation status. His daughter Claire, who worked with Marcel Lapierre after oenology school, and his son Thomas returned to the estate around 2016 and 2017. Marcel is now retired, and the domaine is run by his children Thomas, Claire, and Edith.
The Region
The estate is based in Cairanne in the Vaucluse, widely regarded as the finest producer of the appellation. It farms around 60 hectares and produces roughly 120,000 bottles a year. High-elevation parcels combine galets roulés, the famous rolled stones of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, with clay.
Vineyards and Farming
The domaine is certified organic. Grapes include Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Carignan for the reds, plus Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Muscat, and Viognier among the whites.
Winemaking
Richaud was an early proponent of low-intervention winemaking, convinced that the most important work happens in the vineyard. Grapes are destemmed and fermented separately by variety with indigenous yeast in cement tanks for roughly two to three weeks, then aged twelve months or more in neutral oak. Sulfur additions are low, with no fining or filtration.
The Wines
From the Côtes du Rhône bottlings to single-site Cairanne cuvées like L'Ebrescade and Terre d'Aigles, the wines are benchmarks that helped raise this village to one of the best terroirs of the Côtes-du-Rhône.
