• Geography • Lirac, "le Cru très rive droite" • Terroirs & Geology • Grapes and terroirs, in harmony • The major grapes for the reds and rosés • The main grapes for the white wines

Geography.

Lirac, a Côtes du Rhône Cru

Lirac’s vineyards display their vines in terraces and hillslopes on the right bank of the Rhône, wedged between the garrigue scrubland, the Mistral and the arid land drenched by
the dazzling sun of the Midi.
This location partly explains the wines’ personality, and is at the root of the vineyards’ emblematic maxim :

A very special terroir, bathed in sunshine

The climate here is typically Mediterranean.
Lirac’s vineyards make good use of the sun’s favours: it shines for 2,700 hours in the year! And the average annual temperature is close to 14°C. Rainfall is low, not exceeding 700mm a year.

In this area, the Mistral is always a consideration. It blows fiercely, chasing away diseases and cleansing the grapes before the harvest (there are about 180 days of Mistral each year).
The dry and arid soils restrain the growth of the vines – which therefore produce less wine, but one of higher quality.
The AOC’s yield, which the founding decree set at 42 hectolitres per hectare, rarely rises above 35hl/ha.

The way the terroirs are arranged is also very unusual.

The limestone plateaux of the Vivarais extend towards Avignon in a sort of promontory, and Lirac’s vines were planted at its tip.