Château
Haut-Rian
Château de Garras
Les Vignes de Coulous
Pauline & William Lapierre, organic and biodynamic artisan winegrowers in Rions since 2020
Roots.
The estate was founded in 1988 by Michel and Isabelle Dietrich, both children of Alsatian and Champagne winemakers. After a rich career in Germany, Australia, and Bordeaux, they decided to settle in the pretty medieval village of Rions. For 30 years, they worked to make Château Haut-Rian a benchmark in terms of quality among the region's family estates.
Their daughter, Pauline, first studied at HEC Paris, where she met her husband, William. He grew up in the Paris region, immersed in the world of gastronomy. They left to gain their first professional experience in Singapore and decided to return to France and take over the family vineyard.
It's a lifestyle choice,
For a life where we do things with our hands;
For a life where the countryside is agricultural and fertile;
For a life where delight lies in the breath of the wind, the energy of a ray of sunshine or the smell of rain on the warm ground.
Pauline graduated as an oenologist in Montpellier in 2016 and took over the estate in 2019. William joined the adventure in 2020 after a BTS in viticulture and oenology in Angers.
We, artisans.
At the estate, approximately seven people work full-time, including Pauline and William. An active retiree, Michel Dietrich also offers his expert insight during tastings.
Engaging in organic and biodynamic viticulture requires substantial, technical and precise work from everyone, which can only be done by sensitive, hardworking, patient and stubborn people... artisans.
Our commitments.
WE, ARTISAN WINEGROWERS, ARE FIRMLY COMMITTED TO PRODUCING DEMANDING AND ACCESSIBLE WINES
We try to have, on a daily basis, a long-term and detailed vision in our work because we believe that it is over these long periods and by providing in-depth and regular work that we can recognize the estates concerned with quality. We therefore strive to work our vines like a garden, attentive to the physical and biological balance of the plots.
Since 2018 we have been gradually transferring our 70 hectares of vines to Organic Agriculture, with 40 hectares certified in 2024 and all of our wines to be certified in 2025. Organic agriculture was a choice for us because it requires farmers to be close to their plots, demanding and rigorous in their approach.
To discover a world that is still unknown to us, to try to understand why things about the vine and wine are so fine and subtle that they sometimes go beyond understanding, we began to enrich our soils with biodynamic preparations in November 2024 and we hope to label the estate in 2025.
We have also planted several hundred meters of hedgerow, installed bat boxes and two beehives. We apply green manure to 35 hectares of vineyards and feed the soil each year with compost made from our grape marc.
The enchanted vines.
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The vineyard covers 70 hectares, divided into a multitude of plots ranging from a few acres for the smallest to nearly 4 hectares for the largest. These plots are spread across five villages for a greater diversity of soils, climates, and grape varieties.
This photograph features the incredible Coulous hillside, a magnificent terroir nestled in lush greenery with breathtaking views of the Rions ramparts. A place with a rare energy.
BETWEEN TWO SEAS
The soils are rich in boulbène (clay and sand) and the climate is cooler. Entirely planted with white grape varieties (Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc), they produce fresh and taut wines.
CADILLAC - CÔTES DE BORDEAUX
Clay-limestone and clay-gravel terroirs, mainly on hillsides. Filled with sunshine and warmed by the Garonne in spring, they allow for a very beautiful expression of the 6 red grape varieties in our blends:
Merlot, Cabernet-Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Carmènere.
The oldest plots on the estate were planted in the 1940s and the most recent are a few months old.
The average age of the vineyard is 25 years. We only work with grapes from our own plots.
We are Sémillon lovers. Subtle and delicate, with a beautiful structure on the palate, it adds a lot to our white wine blends.
We are fortunate to have old Sémillon plots on which we began mass selection work in 2019. Mass selection helps preserve the genetic diversity of these old plots by renewing them.