Riu Pintat - Charlie Bay & Adrien Veyrunes

Behind Riu Pintat are two people – Adrien and Charlie – 7 hectares of vines in the semi-arid plain of Pompignan, the former town hall secretariat currently serving as a winery, a Massey Ferguson 148 tractor, its red color almost blazing, and a cohort of accomplices ready to lend a hand. At Riu Pintat, you'll find cherished sixty-year-old Carignan vines, fifty-year-old Cinsault and Tempranillo, thirty-year-old Grenache Blanc and Noir, and younger Sauvignon Blancs.

Riu Pintat takes pragmatic care of its vines, pruning on all fours, broadcasting green manure, working the soil with a deca-cutter, treating with very low doses of sulfur and Bordeaux mixture, and harvesting by hand. In the cellar, indigenous yeasts and meticulous attention do the majority of the work. We add very small doses of sulfites to certain cuvées if we feel it's necessary.

Riu Pintat constantly confronts the system established by the thinkers and technicians of mainstream agriculture, the glaring lack of income granted to those who feed or water the population, and the contemptible considerations given to ecology, rural life, and farmers. Riu Pintat anxiously considers the decline of agriculture, the ever-decreasing amount of usable agricultural land, the resulting increase in fallow land, the encroachment that follows, and the greater techno-political risk of fire.

So, from the plains of Gard, Riu Pintat takes part, in action, in attempts to make viticulture more desirable and wine more digestible, with the fleeting hope of crafting, artisanally, brighter tomorrows.