The madiran is a business of clan. See Laplace, happy owners of the vineyards which bear their name, in the small village of Aydie. The father, Pierre, black beret screwed on the head, accomodate the visitor; Jean-Luc, the elder son, broods the wine storehouse; Francois, puîné, deals with commercial management; Bernard, the junior, dorlote the vine; as for Marie, the benjamine, it takes care on the congestion and forwarding. Blood ties or not, there are the direction of the ground tribe of madiran.

It is Jean-Luc Laplace who says it, by embracing glance the soft squared hills of vines and corn fields dishevelled by the wind come from the Atlantic: "Here, one is a family. One sees oneself, one speaks oneself, one works together. And one wants to advance coast at coast, vine growers independent and co-operators." Christine Dupuy, who reigns since 1993 on the Labranche-Laffont Field, confirms: "A the death of my father, when I took again the exploitation, everyone supported me... whereas the hectares are very coveted!" It is not its neighbor, jovial Pierre Speyer, who will say the opposite. This Belgian a removed from rim bit, owner of a company of cinematographic hiring of material in Paris, bought here are nine years the 4 hectares of the Laffont Field. "I knew nothing there, acknowledges it. I very learned here." "insane of wine" - dixit Jean-Luc Laplace, an expert - who dedicates weeding them with the gémonies and swears only by the vintage with the hand and in small cage. In consideration of which, its vintages with the names of Greek goddesses are torn off like rolls.

This solidarity enracinée in clay and the grepp madiranais is perhaps explained by the force of the geography: the 1 385 hectares of the vineyard overlap three departments (Gers, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées), two administrative areas (Aquitaine and the Midday-Pyrenees), two cultures, the Gascon one and the Bearnaise sauce, and four valleys which run of north to the south. By the force of the history, too. "It is that one comes by far", coward Didier Barré, main of the Berthoumieu Field. At the beginning was the tannat, type of vine made in valley of Adour. A rotten temper, this tannat. A coriace, which does not fear the cloudburst, nor the dryness. Generous out of juice and alcohol, rich color and in tanins, as its name indicates it. A type of vine not convenient to overcome, often hard and aggressive, sometimes green and astringent if it misses maturity. The vine growers initially married it with the cabernet-sauvignon and honest cabernet, history to assagir it. Then, in the wake of Alain Brumont, very media owner of the Castles Montus and Bouscassé, a new generation, initiated with the mysteries of oenology, got busy to tame the tannat. They reached that point through patience and of work, thanks to a better adapted wine making and, in particular, to longer cuvaisons.

Not question of stopping in so good way. For a few years, a score of owners have founded a company of collective interest agricultural and recruited a technician in vine growing. To test, compare, innovate. To still progress. Together. Fruits of these efforts, best fermented madiran flirtent from now on with the 100% tannat. Powerful nectars, with the flavours of ripe fruits, spices and of toast, which are not caught with serious for as much. "They fully appear with the mets of South-west, like the steaklet, the crystallized one and the cassoulet, but also with the stews and game, Jean-Luc Laplace underlines. The madiran is a wine of table. With the noblest direction of the term."

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