Sadly we have to announce that Romain Bouchard passed away on July 17th.

He was a son of the Bouchard family in Beaune and started his professional life there among the bottles of the best and the greatest that Burgundy had to offer. He was not there long but moved to North Africa where he would meet Nancy, his wife of 60 years. In Morocco, which he loved, he cultivated oranges and had some input in the creation of the tangerine.

Eventually he returned to France and settled in a delightful Provençal Mas, Le Val des Rois, surrounded by vines and fields of lavender. His first vintage was 1964, which was 100% grenache and is still good today. Thereafter he began to change the makeup of his vineyard, planting syrah (one of the first to do so) and more controversially gamay, which he felt would do well in this northern corner of Provence.

And so he continued to make vintage after vintage of exceptional wine that, possibly thanks to its input of gamay, always ended up tasting like rather fine old Burgundy. The pragmatism of the citrus farmer remained however, and in an age when it was considered correct to only pick by hand, Romain harvested by machine. As a result, Romain saved potentially dreadful vintages like 1987 and 2002 when incessant rain all but destroyed the crop. In 2003 on the other hand, a vintage marked by both drought and extreme heat, Romain was able to intervene early and pick quickly and made one of the loveliest wines of the vintage.

Romain and his wife Nancy were hosts to a memorable visit of The Wine Society’s Dining Club in 1992 which included the following vintages:

1991: Underrated vintage but here soft, fruity and delicious.
1990: Grander and splendidly full.
1988: Elegant and refined.
1987: A little mushroomy, like old pinot.
1983: Vigorous, full, figgy and full of life.
1978: One of the greatest Rhône vintages, complex, weighty, full-bodied, wonderful.
1971: Made from 100% grenache and tasting like old Sauternes: pale garnet, butterscotch and sweet.

Romain Bouchard was an important figure in the development of Rhône wine. But while some of his colleagues were sometimes tempted by the benefits of overripe grapes, extraction and barrel ageing, Romain kept to his path, which was of beauty, poise and finesse. To itinerant wine buyers like Sebastian and myself, he provided tiny bottles of lavender essence to help us remember his delightful part of Provence. We shall miss him.

Marcel Orford-Williams