The Story:

Alain worked for 25 years on vines that he would put into the Cave Cooperative and he even became the president of the Cooperative, but in 2004 he decided he wanted to be able to make his own wine; he also got a bit fed up of his carefully tended juice being lumped in with people who prioritised quantity over quality. In fact, the Cooperative at Pouzolles doesn’t exist any more.

He’s passionate about his locality: the name Bobian comes from the time when his particular domaine was in a tiny hamlet called St Jean de Bobian, before Pouzolles came into being. He loves traditional Languedoc grapes, Carignan most of all, and he hand harvests his grapes. His has remained a small business and we tasted his wines in his front garden. Unfortunately, last year’s crop of whites had been heavily affected by frost so he didn’t have any to show me, but he took me though his range of reds, and I’ll pick out four.

First ‘Elisa’, led by grenache but with a syrah support hand. It’s got a lovely deep round nose, and, at 12.5% is notably light for this area. Hand harvested, as are all his wines. (Price band A).

Going up, we have ‘Symphonie’, a grenache-syrah-carignan blend with six months in barrel. It’s still a drinking wine, but with enough complexity to keep things interesting and some frisky acidity. It’s technically labelled as AOC Languedoc but is from his Cotes de Thongue terroir. (Price band B).

Then to ‘Altiorem’, (Price Band B) a 100% carignan, with a subtle use of barrel. This cuvée had previously been called ‘Opus’, but when Robert Mondavi joined up with Philippe de Rothschild to create ‘Opus One’, their lawyers called up Alain to tell him that they’d copyrighted the word ‘Opus’ and he had to stop using it. As if a €9 euro carignan from four hectares of the Languedoc was going to be confused for a £300 icon from California. This has a simply beautiful nose. I haven’t tasted ‘Opus One’ from California so I can’t compare. (Note that Alain is a carignan afficianado; he even started up an award three years ago just for wines made from the grape: the Concours de Carignan.)

Finally, to ‘Symphonie Grande Reserve’ (Price Band D), his top wine, only made in certain vintages (this from 2017). It’s the same Grenache-syrah-carignan blend as for ‘Symphonie’ but aged for four years in barrels. I approached it with a somewhat heavy heart, having too often experienced Languedoc winemakers’ clumsy attempts to make something prestigious by lobbing oak at an otherwise enjoyable wine, but was pleasantly delighted. The oak sits lightly on the palate, the tannins are soft and the fruit is beautiful; the whole feels integrated and is a sumptuous drink.

As we drank it together, in the shade of an olive tree, he just turned to me with a smile, pointed to the glass in his hand, gave half a nod to the warm sun above us, and said with quiet satisfaction, “Life isn’t complicated, really.” Just then, it was impossible to disagree.