Pascal Odoyer, Jean-Pierre Lafond’s great-uncle, governor of Tavel become one of the first wine grower of his village. His wine estate will go from father to son.
The grandfather of Pascal Lafond, Valéry Taulier, builds the first private cellar of Tavel. He will contribute a lot to the grow of the appellation Tavel by creating links between the burgundy’s wine merchant and Tavel.
Jean-Pierre Lafond, Valéry Taulier’s son in law, builds his own wine estate. As a horse race lover, he names his wine estate “Roc-Epine”, as a memory of Roquepine a famous horse race. And so was born Domaine Lafond Roc-Epine.
Pascal Lafond, Jean-Pierre Lafond’s son, start to work in the estate. With his father, they decide altogether to sell the wines solely in bottles (Tavel, Lirac and Côtes du Rhône).
Jean-Pierre and Pascal make a big jump over the Rhône and buy our first plot in Châteauneuf du Pape. This is the start of a new appellation for us, Châteauneuf du Pape, with only 87 ares, which is 4 000 bottles.
A big decision have been made, we start the organic certification. But first, what does it means? We won’t use anymore pesticide, herbicide and other chemical products. We will only use coper and sulfite to protect the vineyard from the diseases.
Ladies and gentlemen, her we are! Domaine Lafond Roc-Epine finally got their organic certification. So from the vintage 2012 all of our wines will be Organic.
The new generation is there, Pascal Lafond’s son, Jean-Baptiste Lafond, started early this year to work with us after a BTS Viticulture Oenology at Beaunes.