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Vine Connections | Wine | Cotes du Rhone | Rene-Emmanuel
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What happens when a 5th generation grape grower teams up with a 9th generation winemaker? Pure magic. René-Emmanuel is a partnership between two very passionate men: grape grower René Ours and winemaker Emmanuel Bouchard. While the passion for what they do is remarkably similar, their histories are quite different:
René: René Ours was born to be a farmer. At age 12, he was already driving the family tractor through the vineyards of Valreas, the northernmost of the 17 appellations entitled to use the Cotes du Rhone Villages designation. As a young man, René knew his destiny was tied to the land, and with amazing foresight, he gradually bought, cleared and planted the slopes above the village. Most thought he was crazy, spending so much time and money to clear land when there was ample flat land to be planted. But drive through René’s various holdings (a total of 25 hectares), and you quickly conclude that this soft-spoken farmer is pretty darn savvy. In between the remaining stands of native oaks and lavendar lay some of the most beautifully tended vineyards in the southern Rhone Valley.
Looking out from the highest point (500 meters in elevation), the vineyards remind one more of Chateauneuf-du-Pape than Cotes-du-Rhone, with parcels here and there covered by layers of round stones or "galets". René takes this natural wonder and treats it with a respectful philosophy: use cover crops as a natural defense against pests, no spraying, no irrigation (even for newly planted vines), do a "green harvest" to limit yields, and harvest completely by hand. His vineyards’ average age is 25 years, with some parcels nearing their 60th birthday. René has the look of someone who has lived with the sun and wind, and the smile of someone who knows he made some smart decisions.
Emmanuel: Emmanuel Bouchard’s path to wine’s door was a bit more circuitous. Though his father, Romain, was an 8th generation descendant of Burgundy’s well-known Bouchard winemaking family, Emmanuel left the family business to pursue a degree in pharmacology and biology, eventually enjoying a successful career as a biologist in a medical laboratory in Saint-Etienne. Then a few years ago, Romain decided it was time to retire. With little hope of his son returning to carry on the family business, Romain sold off all but 4 hectares of the family property. Emmanuel finally had a change of heart and moved back to Valreas, but with such little of his own family’s vineyards remaining, he was in need of prime grape sources. That’s where the fates jump in.
A Partnership Begins: Just about this time, René Ours began to have misgivings about his relationship with the local wine co-op. He was making better grapes with more distinctive character than most of his neighbors, yet he was simply being paid by the ton. The last straw was when René found out that the co-op was using his grapes for their Reserve wine, yet they continued to pay him the same rate as those who were harvesting grapes of far lesser quality.
Word-of-mouth travels quickly in a small village, and René and Emmanuel soon found that each was in need of the other. They started slowly in 1999 with Emmanuel vinifying just a small amount of René’s total harvest. He may have wished that they had done more, as this first wine won the coveted "l’Amphore d’Or: (Golden Amphora), the top prize at the prestigious wine festival in Orange. They won’t make that mistake again.
René-Emmanuel’s first releases include three wines:
2000 Cuveé Classique, Cotes du Rhone: a traditional non-oaked blend of Grenache (60%), Syrah (30%) & Carignane (10%).
2000 Coteaux des Galets, Cotes du Rhone: a Reserve-level blend of 50% Grenache/50% Syrah aged in new and one-year-old Burgundy barrels. Not Yet Released.
2000 Etoile des Papes, Vin de Pays de Vaucluse: an old-vine white blend of Viognier (50%), Grenache Blanc (20%) Bourboulanc (15%), and Clairette (15%).
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