Vines are recorded at Vacqueyras in 1414, in the first land register of the Comtat Venaissin. The village was within the Côtes du Rhône area in 1937 and joined the Côtes du Rhône Villages in 1955. It became a cru of its own in 1990, approved by the INAO on 22 February and confirmed by decree that August. Until Gigondas added a white in 2023, it was the only cru on the left bank of the Rhône to make dry wine in all three colours.

The vineyard runs from the foot of the Dentelles in small hills and terraces down towards the Ouvèze. On the Sarrians side it covers the high Garrigues plateau, a terrace of rolled stones, limestone gravel and brown clay. Elsewhere the soils mix fine sand, clay, marl, sandstone and fragments of white limestone.

The rules require at least half Grenache in a grower's red vineyard, and at least a fifth of Syrah and Mourvèdre together. The reds are deep in colour, with black fruit, liquorice and spice, full and fleshy in the mouth. They are usually drunk within three to eight years, while the whites and rosés are for drinking young.

Two estates with a page here have vines in the appellation. Domaine Le Sang des Cailloux farms 17 hectares between Vacqueyras and Sarrians, on the Garrigues plateau facing the Dentelles. Near Sarrians, Château des Tours, one of the Reynaud family estates, bottles only its oldest parcels, almost all Grenache, as Vacqueyras.

The wines above are the Vacqueyras wines in our cellar. See also Gigondas, Châteauneuf-du-Pape or the wider Rhône Valley.