Domaine de Piaugier encompasses 30 hectares located mostly in Sablet. Jean-Marc Autran, Alphonse�s great-grandson, took over the winery from his father Marc in 1985. He acquired more vineyards and, with the assistance of his wife Sophie, developed the sale of his wines in bottle. The winery soon became too small and they extended it in 1995 to enable them to mature and store the wines in the best possible conditions. Today, Sophie and Jean-Marc Autran cultivate 3.5 hectares within the Gigondas Appellation d'Origine Contr�l�e area, 12.5 hectares in the Sablet AOC and 14 hectares of C�tes-du-Rh�ne vineyards.
One of the great advantages of the domaine is that it is split into many small areas located on different soil types: clay with limestone and sand, clay with chalk, and sand and gravel soils. The village name of Sablet actually refers to "sable", which means "sand" in French. A further advantage is that the vines themselves, which are 30�50 years old, are reaching their prime. Vines are planted at 4,000 plants per hectare and close attention is paid to yields with an average of 40 hl/ha, well below the standard in the region. The grapes are hand-harvested, parcel by parcel, which lends each wine its own specific character, each one different from the next.
Grenache reigns supreme in the village, with complimentary plantings of Syrah, Mourv�dre, Counoise and Carignan. While Grenache can sometimes overpower other varieties, Jean-Marc's gentle touch and gift with blending translate to a more elegant, restrained style. Fruit and freshness are the always the aim, even in warmer years. Until the 2005 vintage, the wines were made from whole bunches, with no destemming or crushing. Destemming was introduced in 2006. The duration of indigenous yeast fermentation varies from one week (C�tes-du-Rh�ne) to four weeks (for the Sablet and Gigondas). The temperature is strictly controlled at 28-30�C. The C�tes-du-Rh�ne red wines are matured in concrete tanks for 6-12 months while the Sablet and Gigondas are matured for 2 years in used barrique as well as concrete tank. When bottling the reds, only their C�tes-du-Rh�ne is filtered.
