Our story
A project born of the will of men and women
In 1925, our first winemakers, driven and led by Auguste Bastide, founded the "Coopérative vinicole et agricole des Coteaux de Pierrevert" to pool their production resources and effectively intervene in the markets for the commercialization of their wines.
Since the 1980s, the department's cooperative wineries have gradually merged. The last mergers concerned the cooperative wineries of Manosque, Villeneuve, and Quinson in 1992 and then 1998, which joined ours.
Our cooperative is therefore today the only existing entity in the department of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and the only important wine-growing unit to operate in the territory of the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) of Pierrevert.
A land, values
In addition to this AOP, our terroir covers two other appellations known as "Protected Geographical Indications" (IGP):
- the IGP Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, for multi-varietal or single-varietal wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, dry Muscat, and Muscat de Hambourg.
- The IGP Méditerranée.
This terroir, a harmonious blend of soils and climate, is enhanced by the work of our winegrowers. Our area of activity extends around Pierrevert and over about ten neighboring communes, but also along the Durance and in the Quinson sector in the Verdon valley.
To concretize and also symbolize our origins, we adopted the name "Petra Viridis" in 2011, already given by Latin to our village, the "Green Rock"...
The main grape varieties are Grenache Noir and Syrah, accompanied by smaller quantities of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Muscat de Hambourg and Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, Vermentino, Grenache Blanc...
Currently, our cooperative brings together 80 winegrowers who work on nearly 400 hectares to produce an average of 25,000 hectoliters of wine across two winemaking sites, Pierrevert and Quinson. We produce red, rosé, and white wines, which we market ourselves in bottles and bag-in-box (BIBs) under our own labels for nearly two-thirds of our volumes.
Our cellar is equipped with modern equipment for winemaking, including pneumatic presses, refrigerated stainless steel tanks, a cold production unit, tangential filters... Our working methods combine modernity and tradition, allowing us to produce wines that bear the signature of our terroir.
Our cooperative today
Today, as in the past, our cooperative remains the means to achieve the common project of men and women to attain the best wine quality.
In this spirit, an approach towards sustainable agriculture has been implemented for several years. In this context, the winemakers in the Quinson sector have, after several years of effort, achieved organic certification. Their vineyards are free of all herbicides and pesticides, and they respect the environmental charters and quality standards of this specialty.
Our stated project is to develop a wide range of wines, adapted to a large number of markets. We also take into account changes in consumer tastes and desires, as the pleasure experienced when tasting our wines is the ultimate goal of all the work done upstream, both by our winemakers in their vineyards and within our cellar, from pruning the vine to bottling the product nearly a year later...
The numerous awards and medals obtained in prestigious competitions allow us to believe that we are on the right track...