In his early 20s Romain le Bars, a native Parisian, had a keen interest in wine and a desire to learn. He wanted to learn from the best and after applying for a job, he moved to the Southern Rhone / Gard in 2012 to work with the legendary Eric Pfifferling. Romain spent the subsequent 7 years working at cult winery Domaine L’Anglore and the influence is evident.

A unique opportunity presented itself in April 2018, when Romain found a 1.2 hectare parcel of vines in Tavel that was available for sale. At the time Romain was still working for Eric, so his weekends were spent pruning and preparing the vineyard for his first harvest. With the help of Thibault Pfifferling, Eric’s son, Romain vinified his first wine in his garage, yielding 3000 bottles that first year.

In early 2019 he found an additional 3 hectares to rent in and around Lirac and took over the farming and management of these vines. In February, when I visited, Romain’s father had travelled from Paris to help him prune. He also rented a vacant winery on the outskirts of Tavel.

Grenache (planted in goblet & trellis) and Syrah (trellis) can be found in the Tavel plot, the soil being calcareous rocky scree. In Lirac and its surroundings the soil is sand and clay with limestone throughout, planted to Ugni Blanc, Mourvedre, Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Carignan.

For these southern French varieties, in true Pfifferling style, Romain prefers to use direct pressing (approximately 3 hours) and carbonic maceration (5 – 9 days depending on the variety, for the finesse and freshness they give to the fruit. A less is more approach.

Romain describes his wines “not red and not white, you shouldn’t judge them by their colour.” In the cellar fermentation only occurs with natural yeasts, the wines are unfined and unfiltered. Some cuvees are sans sulphur, the others receive less than 1 part at bottling. In 2019 Romain produced 18000 bottles

 These are elegant and ethereal wines made in the same spirit and vain as Romain’s former employer. L’Anglore style with vibrating energy.