Michel Riouspeyrous took over the family farm in Irouléguy in 1990, without experience or winemaking skills - his parents had abandoned vines for mixed farming.

However, he has the memory of his winegrower grandfather, the cellar under his bedroom, and some old vines as an inheritance. He learns, reinvents or rediscovers practices in this isolated vineyard which almost disappeared.

When the Irouléguy AOC was obtained in 1970, there remained only a fragment of the 50 hectares of this vineyard created by the monks of Roncesvaux Abbey in the Middle Ages. They then served their wines to the pilgrims. The vineyard reached up to 1,000 hectares at the best of its reputation.

The rebirth of the Arretxea estate

Initially associated with Peio Espil of the Ilarria estate, Michel Riouspeyrous became independent to find himself at the head of 8 hectares. He also buys the grapes from a five-hectare plot.

From the start, he seemed to begin “organic” work without trying to claim it. The vineyard is located on steep south-facing slopes, surrounded by hedges and woods, in a rich biotope. Arretxea means "the stone house" in Basque.

The Riouspeyrous are now four. There are still Thérèse and Michel, but they are gradually passing the baton to Iban and Téo, their sons. The vineyard and the cellar are now their domain and the transmission takes place under the best auspices. If the whites were among the greatest wines of the South-West, they are joined by the reds which now give the full measure of the mountain terroirs of Irouléguy in the hands of the young generation who, to mark their arrival, plant a plot in massales on an ampelite base (shale cooked by the magma of the ophite). The flagship vintage of the Hegoxuri estate always shines with the blend of sandstone and schist from the estate, while the plots are real mountain curiosities.

The wines: to take stock of the Riouspeyrous family's relationship with its terroir, the Hegoxurri vintage, a blend of the estate's different virtuous foundations, reveals itself with precious and precise intensity. Its tense volume with a crystalline shine lets a mineral shine through which can be tasted in a straight and frank juice. Only aged in concrete vats, with very little extraction, the 2020 Irouleguy delivers a black fruit well-steeped in the character of tannat, notes of blueberries, a silky touch and a licorice finish. Barely peppery and highlighted by a fresh and ripe tannin, it brilliantly concludes this introduction. 

Selected plots on sandstone and aging in oak barrels give Haitza, always as juicy, crunchy as a ripe fruit and which draws its minerality from the freshness of a tannin vibrating with a particular energy. In total contact with modern consumption, to drink or to keep, the Burdin Harria red gives the full measure of the ophite base and the long expression of the tannat which reveals a sanguine, sappy vintage, with a vigorous energy which confirms the greatness of this volcanic soil. The Grès and Schistes plots are two great wines for aging which have respectively a fatty note of salinity and precious bitterness on the finish.

Some numbers of this family home:

Number of bottles per year: 40,000

Planted area: 12.5 hectares (Red: 7.5, White: 5)

Harvest method: Manual

Average age of vines: 25

Purchase of grapes: Yes

Red grape varieties: Cabernet franc (30%), Tannat (65%), Cabernet-Sauvignon (5%)

White grape varieties: Petit Courbu (10%), Petit Manseng (35%), Gros Manseng (55%)