Career
Pierre Le Roy was born in 1890 in Normandy. His father was a cavalry officer who was decommissioned from the army for protesting again the law separating the church and the state. The family left their property in Mortagne-au-Perche and moved to Vendargues in the Hérault where they managed an estate producing wine.
Le Roy studied law and then during World War I served as a fighter pilot.
He became a prominent figure in not only the history of Châteauneuf-du-Pape but also in the history of French wine. In 1935 he and Joseph Capus co-founded the Institut National des Appellations d"Origine (INAO) and spearheaded the creation of the Appellation d"origine contrôlée (AOC) system that would become the basis of the French wine laws and continue to influence European wine laws into the twenty-first century.
