The Domaine de Pignan , located in Châteauneuf-du-Pape is led by Frederic Charvin , a winemaker looking like a rugby player ! An enthusiast who has managed to develop its wines over time. It produces wines of incomparable finesse of Châteauneuf-du-Pape some rated 90/100 by The Wine Advocate !

Terroir and Vines

The area of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation expands to 3 200 hectares and has 300 producers.

13 grape varieties are allowed for the Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC.

• For red wines : - 64 % black grenache - 13% mourvèdre - 12 % syrah - 5 % cinsault - 2 % cou noise - 2 % muscardin - 1 % vaccarése - 1 % black terret

• For white wines : - 40 % white grenache - 20 % clairette - 20 % roussanne - 10 % bourboulenc - 5 % picpoul - 5 % picardan

The average age of the Domain de Pignan vines is 60 years old , and 3 of them are a hundred years old !
The production is of 35 hectolitres by hectare. The area of the vineyard is 14 hectares for the red grape varieties and 1 hectare for the white.

The wine training is traditional (soil work, short goblet training, polling, budding off, organic treatments : copper sulphate pulp, copper and sulphur with control). The wine traiting is made in the respect of the tradition, with organic fertilizer and phytosanitary treatments with control and the work is adapted according to parameters and climate, respecting nature. The soil is sandy, clayey calcareous with the famous rolled pebbles which in fact accumulate the heat of the day in order to be able to release it the night. The climate is Mediterranean. In general a lot of heat in summer but also a lot of wind (the Mistral) in winter. The Mistral has a natural effect of antibiotic on the vines. Traditional training : even the stock for grafts and the Small grafts were chosen depending on the nature of the soil and the subsoil.

Wine Production

For red wines

• « The harvest » : the grapes are sorted and picked by hand at a very advanced technological maturity to obtain aroma well mature 

• « The pressing » : this intervention consists in bursting open the vine in order to extract the pulp and the juice. Then put into concrete vat after 95 % of stratching.

• The « maceration » : lasts 15 to 21 days on average. Reassembly and release daily. The control of the temperature is done several times a day, it must be kept between 28 and 30 degrees. The drop beyond these temperatures is made with a refrigerator system. After this period of vatting time and fermentation, the must has been transformed into wine. The alcoholic fermentation is a very important stage in the elaboration of the wine because at this moment the added yeasts transform the sugar of the vine into alcohol. The flow occurs, then the pressing, this stage consists in going through the bunches of grapes into the wine press (type pneumatic Bucher) in order to leave them from. the vat and to obtain the guise.

• Afterwards, when the wine is finished, we put it in oak barrels and tuns between 12 and 18 months, this time passed, the wine is bottled.