Pierre Amadieu Cairanne Les Hautes Rives Rouge

Pierre Amadieu Cairanne Les Hautes Rives Rouge

Tasting note:

A delicious Cote's du Rhone made from a vineyard with 60 year old vines, the grapes are picked by hand on the slopes of the Haut Rives, the wine is full creamy and rich, but not too heavy

Cairanne is a - still relatively unknown - but very interesting region in the Rhône Valley that can be said to bring together Syrah from the Northern Rhône and Grenache from the Southern Rhône in a truly delicious package of its own.

1929 Founding of the Pierre Amadieu winery

The Amadieu family has been associated with the Gigondas appellation for generations. Our grandfather, Pierre Amadieu , owner of 7 hectares at the foot of the village, where vines and olive trees had grown side by side for more than a century, decided to bottle his Gigondas in 1929. He was one of the first to write the name of the appellation on his bottles, and for his vintage Clos de la Paillouse he won a gold medal at the Concours Agricole de Paris in 1932.

Pierre, assisted by his wife, will develop the family property and become a major player in the appellation. In order to optimally exercise his activity, our grandfather built a wine cellar and an underground cellar for aging wines in 1945. It was dug on two basement levels, ensuring constant temperature and humidity.

1950 Acquisition of the Romane and Machotte properties

Our grandfather was a pioneer in many areas: he selected wines and then bought two historically linked properties in the 1950s: Romane and La Machotte. Over the years, generations and planting campaigns, the 7 hectares became 137, making Maison Pierre Amadieu the largest private vineyard in Gigondas. These 137 hectares of vineyards are surrounded by 200 hectares of scrubland and forests, which provide natural protection for the vineyard.

Then in 1955 he bought a former railway tunnel near Pierrelongue, in the Drôme, at a candle auction to mature his wines there. This privileged space, 160 meters long, received 159 barrels of 30 hectoliters, allowing exceptional maturation. But logistical constraints led us to close this location in 2000.

At the same time, the cellar of the Machotte farm was equipped with oak barrels – which are still used – and receives up to 2000 hectoliters of wine in wood. The wines benefit from natural air conditioning, where old ceramic barrels from the 13th century are still visible.

Pierre Amadieu , our grandfather, was not only a winemaker and builder, but also a forerunner in many things. Before all the current talk about the environment, he grazed a large flock of sheep in the vineyards out of season – up to 1,200 of them! -, applying both natural fertilization and controlled grass cover, to obtain a natural and healthy vineyard.

He also dealt with the structuring aspect of the wine-growing landscape, planting numerous olive trees and cypresses from Florence, which today are a delight for hikers.

Pierre Amadieu