They’ve been making wine in the Southern Rhône, at least since Roman times (like in the 2nd century), but this area was one of the first to step up the commercial game — Roquemaure and the neighboring towns began stamping their wine barrels with “CDR” for Côtes-du-Rhône as early as 1737 (200 years before the French quality pyramid popped up) to let buyers know that the origin and quality of the wine was solid. With a great location for exporting (the town is right on the Rhône River) they did a brisk trade and got lots of cred from their stamp.
Sadly though, the very thing that allowed Côtes-du-Rhône from this area to spread far and wide was also its undoing, Roquemaure’s location on the Rhône and its imports from New York necessitated an intervention from St. Valentine.
As the story goes, in 1862 a Frenchman received a shipment of American grapevines, which he proudly planted in his garden in the town. Within a year, a strange thing started to happen to neighboring vineyards — they seemed plagued and started to die. Why? Because the Charles Manson of grapevines, a pesky bug that multiplies with alarming speed and poisons the roots of European grapevines (different species from American ones), thus becoming a mass murderer in fairly short order, had arrived in Roquemaure. American vines are immune to this pest, called phylloxera, but the French stock aren’t and died nearly on the spot (this spread all over France and other parts of Europe, BTW. And you wonder why some French hate Americans?).
By 1868 Roquemaure, which relied heavily on wine for economic livelihood, was affected by phylloxera and all the vines lay dead or dying. People grew desperate. So they pulled out the big guns — a rich dude in the town, Maximillen Richard, headed down to Rome to see about acquiring some relics of a patron saint for protection.
After some wheeling and dealing, Richard returned with the relics of St. Valentine. Gradually the vineyards recovered and the folks fell in love (pun intended) with their guardian. Since 1989, on the Saturday and Sunday closest to Valentine’s Day, the town of Roquemaure hosts La Fête des Amoureux (the Festival of Lovers) to celebrate love and lovers alike.
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Source for history: Tourist Office of Roquemaure
