Romain Le Bars (Southern Rhône/Gard, France)

During my preteen years, our basement was reserved for my younger brother’s saxophone homework. My parents did their best to nurture Mike’s budding interest in music, but they drew the line at what sounded like nightly geese torture taking place in our living room. Relegated to a dingy laundry room, he soon grew disinterested and moved on to basketball, where after dedicating himself for an entire summer, he transformed into one of the better mediocre players around. It was actually quite impressive. Eventually Mike found his calling for cooking and dove in with the same zeal that saw him slaughtering geese in our basement all those years ago. I have always admired his obsessiveness.

Behind every boundary-pushing winemaker are their 10,000 hours, countless worn-out squeegees, and an unflinching grit for their craft. Rarely does anyone get to cheat that process. Romain Le Bars certainly did not. A native Parisian in his early twenties, Romain followed his curiosity to the Southern Rhone and the legendary cult winery Domaine de L’Anglore. There working under Eric Pfifferling—long an icon to natural wine heads and Parisian hipsters—Romain honed his talents for the next seven years. While still working at L’Anglore, he acquired his first 1.5 hectares in Tavel to start his own project. In a region known for big, powerful reds, his wines explore light, fresh minerality through direct-press or partial-carbonic blends of Grenache and Syrah. And while Romain has found his own signature style since his time working alongside Pfifferling, his wines are forever linked and influenced by those formative years at L’Anglore. Here’s to Romain Le Bars, my brother Mike, and to no half-stepping.