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South Cote Du Rhone - France
Domaine de Piaugier
The Winery
The Domaine de Piaugier is situated in the village of Sablet, in the southern Rhône valley. Jean-Marc Autran, whose father and grandfather before him were wine growers, and his wife, Sophie, cultivate 30 hectares of vines in Sablet and Gigondas.
From vinification right through to bottling, the wines are made in the cellars built by Jean-Marc’s great-grandfather in 1947.
The dominant grape variety is the traditional Grenache, with complimentary plantings of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Counoise and Carignan for the reds and Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Roussane and Viognier for the white wine.
The range includes classics such as a renowned Gigondas, Sablet reds made from small parcels of vines, and an elegant rosé, as well as some more unusual wines such as the barrel fermented white, the 'Ténébi' – made from 100% Counoise – or the Rêve de Marine made from pure Syrah and matured in oak barrels.
OUR STORY
Alphonse Vautour, Jean-Marc Autran’s great grandfather, made his wine in a cellar at the top of a little hill to the south of Sablet – called ‘Les Briguières’ – where he owned 6 hectares of vines. The winery was named ‘Ténébi’, after the old owner of the house.
Alphonse had to go down the hill, his mules loaded with barrels, to wait for the wine merchant to come by. If the merchant didn’t come, or didn’t buy his wine, he had to climb back up with his reluctant mules. So in 1947 he decided to build a new winery on the road below, where the Piaugier cellars are to this day.
Jean-Marc Autran, Alphonse’s great-grandson, took over the winery from his father Marc in 1985. He acquired more vineyards and, with the assistance of his wife Sophie, developed the sale of his wines in bottle. The winery soon became too small and they extended it in 1995 to enable them to mature and store the wines in the best possible conditions.
In homage to this family history, Jean-Marc has dedicated a wine to his ancestor, the ‘Réserve Alphonse Vautour’, which is made from grapes grown in his original fields.
Today, wines from Domaine de Piaugier, this little family estate, are sold as far away as the United States, Japan and Brazil.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Sophie and Jean-Marc Autran cultivate 30 hectares of vines distributed as follows: 5 hectares within the Gigondas Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée and 25 hectares in the Sablet Côtes du Rhône Villages vineyards.
One of the great advantages of the the domaine is that it is split into many small areas, which are on various different soil types : clay with limestone and sand, clay with chalk, and sand and gravel soils.
Until the 2005 vintage, the wines were made from whole bunches, with no destemming or crushing. Destemming was introduced in 2006. The duration of the fermentation varies from one week (for the Côtes du Rhône) to four weeks (for the Sablet and Gigondas). The temperature is strictly controlled at 28-30 degrees Centigrade.
The Côtes du Rhône red wines are matured in concrete tanks for 6 months to a year while the Sablet and Gigondas are matured for two winters (three winters for some cuvées) in demi-muids (600-litre barrels) and large wooden vats.
The white wines are vinified in two-season-old oak barrels and bottled after a few months to conserve their youthful aromas and freshness.
Bottling of the reds is carried out in a single pass, and none except the Côtes du Rhône are filtered.
A further advantage is that the vines themselves, which are 20 – 40 years old, are reaching their prime. The average yield is 40 hectolitres per hectare.The grapes are harvested separately, parcel by parcel, which lends each wine its own specific character, each one different from the next. All the grapes are picked by hand.
The dominant grape variety is the traditional Grenache, with complimentary plantings of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Counoise and Carignan, with a density of 4,000 plants per hectare and pruned in either the ‘cordon royat’ or the ‘gobelet’ style.
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