Walls: Cave de Cairanne, back from the brink

In the same way that a private domaine can support a family, a co-operative winery can support an entire village. So when the Cave de Cairanne was effectively declared bankrupt in 2014, a whole community of growers was left hanging from a thread.

‘Closing a co-op is like closing a church. It supports businesses, families, generations,’ says Denis Crespo. He’s an unlikely saviour, as his roots are in natural winemaking. But he provided the necessary electric shock to get the co-op’s heart pumping again. Today, it’s a model of large-scale, no-added-sulphite winemaking. But its recovery was far from guaranteed.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for five Cave de Cairanne wines

From hero to zero

The Cave de Cairanne (also known as Camille Cayran) was founded in 1929, and rapidly established a reputation for quality. ‘In the 1980s and 1990s it was the best cave co-operative in the Rhône,’ says Crespo, partly thanks to the excellence of the winemaker at that time, Raymond Coulourat.

‘It had prestige at the time,’ says Crespo. So when he heard that the Cave de Cairanne had collapsed in 2014, ‘I said it’s not possible – how could this happen?’

The reason for its downfall, he discovered, was that the co-op was selling 90% of its wine to supermarkets. ‘When you dip a toe in the water, it’s not a problem,’ says Crespo. But having all of your eggs in one supermarket basket can be risky. ‘The competition is fierce – there is always someone who can do it cheaper than you.’

With 48 employees to support, the management made every sale they could – even if this meant selling at a loss. In February 2014, it could no longer pay its bills, and was put under judicial review with debts of €7.8m (£6.8m).

In good years gone by, the co-op comprised 200 growers who worked 2,000ha of vines. By 2014, only 50 growers remained, farming just 300ha. ‘We got this close to death,’ says Crespo, pinching a finger and thumb together with a millimetre to spare.

An unlikely saviour

Denis Crespo is 50 years old, but with a full head of hair, gold earrings and a mischievous twinkle in his eye, he appears younger. He grew up in Pessac in Bordeaux, where he studied winemaking for six years, but his winemaking roots are more paysan than bourgeois.

‘I got bored quickly,’ he says, ‘it’s very safe, very traditional, nobody wants change.’ On visiting Châteauneuf-du-Pape in 1994, he realised immediately that the southern Rhône was where he belonged.

He took a winemaking position at Domaine Rouge Garance in Saint-Hilaire-d’Ozilhan, just west of Avignon, where he remained for 13 years. ‘It was totally different from Bordeaux, totally free.’ He developed his style in collaboration with other natural and biodynamic producers such as Domaine Richaud, Domaine Oratoire St Martin and Domaine La Bouïssière.

In 2010 he sought a bigger challenge, so left Domaine Rouge Garance to join the cooperative Coteaux de Fournès (which has now become Les Vignerons de Remoulins Fournès). ‘I had a very bad impression of co-ops at the time – industrial methods, machine picking, lots of chemicals.’ He wanted to see if he could steer them in a more artisanal direction.

It was here that he met Samuel Montgermont of the négociant Les Grandes Serres. On hearing about the Cave de Cairanne’s desperate situation, Montgermont thought Crespo might be the man to help turn their fortunes around, and he persuaded him to meet with the co-op’s management team in June 2015.

Life support

When Crespo arrived at the Cave de Cairanne, he tasted through the range. ‘Of the 21 cuvées I tasted, I would have kept maybe one. I was traumatised. 90% of the wines they made were oaked, polished and tired.’

The supermarkets insisted on wines being made to a specific recipe, like cola. ‘The main problem is that [members] weren’t proud of their wines,’ he says.

He put together a plan to rescue the co-op. ‘Only one thing will work,’ he told them, ‘quality.’ He overhauled the range, and by merging with another local co-op in 2020, he managed to increase the holdings of organically grown vines, which became a flagship cuvée.

Another major change was in the winemaking. Crespo believes that ‘there are lots of microorganisms and yeasts that bring aromatic complexity’ during fermentation, but these are inhibited by adding sulphites. Now all the wines are made without sulphite additions.

Some are even bottled without sulphites. Due to the risks involved, such as oxidation and microbial spoilage, making wine this way on a large scale is rare, but this co-op seems to have perfected it. The Cairanne Sans Soufre Ajouté cuvée is consistently excellent, and retails at just £13.99 in the UK.

A return to health

Today the co-op has 138 members farming 1,200ha of vines, and is functioning healthily once again. ‘I have trouble hiding my joy,’ says Crespo with a beaming smile, ‘but people said it wasn’t possible.’

When he arrived, exports were almost zero; now they’re hitting 30%. His next target is increasing organic farming among his members. Currently at 20%, he aims to increase this to 50% over the next five to six years.

Crespo says that the key to success was enthusing his members, and giving them a sense of belonging and ownership. ‘In a cave co-operative, members are just growers, not vignerons… Now they know which parcels of theirs go into which cuvées. That’s what makes us different.’

He’s restored his members’ self-esteem, and tasting today’s wines from Cave de Cairanne, they deserve to be proud.

Matt Walls’ tasting notes and scores for five Cave de Cairanne wines

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