Painted River
During a visit to a fair in Arles, we stumbled upon the Riu Pintat stand, Charlie had us taste the wines and told us about the project. The vintages speak for themselves, explosive and unique. It was love at first sight. For the rest, we'll let you read their description:
"Behind Riu Pintat are three people - Samuel, Adrien and Charlie - 7 hectares of vines in the semi-arid plain of Pompignan, a former town hall secretariat currently serving as a winery, a Massey Ferguson model 148, almost brand new red, and a host of accomplices ready to provide many services. In Riu Pintat, there are fetish sixty-year-old Carignans, fifty-year-old Cinsaults and Tempranillos, thirty-year-old Grenache Blanc and Noir, and younger Sauvignons.
In 2023, Riu Pintat produced three red vintages; we will have to wait until 2025 for white and rosé to make their way to the tasting barrels.
Pragmatically, Riu Pintat takes care of its vines, prunes on all fours, broadcasts green manures, works the soil with a mini-digger, treats at very low doses with sulfur and Bordeaux mixture. In the cellar, indigenous yeasts and diligent monitoring do most of the work.
Riu Pintat constantly confronts the system established by the thinkers and technicians of dominant agriculture, the glaring lack of income granted to those who feed or water, the contemptible considerations allocated to ecology, rurality, farmers and peasant women. Riu Pintat anxiously reflects on the decline of agriculture, the increasingly unused Useful Agricultural Area and the consequent increase in fallow land, the resulting afforestation, and the technically and politically greater risk of fire.
Thus, from the plains of Gard, Riu Pintat actively participates in attempts to make viticulture more desirable and wine more digestible, with the fragile hope of crafting, artisanally, brighter tomorrows."
