Winemaking expert Jacques Recht dies

Dr. Jacques Recht was an acknowledged winemaking expert on two continents when he and his wife, Liliane, decided to retire and sail around the world on their 36-foot catamaran.

The wind that brought them up the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River almost 30 years ago also was a favorable one for the Virginia wine industry, which had been crushed by the Civil War and had languished since Prohibition in the 1930s.

"Europe's loss was our gain," said Doug Flemer, owner of Ingleside Vineyards in Westmoreland County. "Jacques was one of the first professionals to come into the area and share his knowledge and experience. Without his expertise and help in the early days, we would not be as far along as we are today."

Dr. Recht died Sunday in Montross. He was 78.

After arriving in Virginia, the Rechts met Carl Flemer, a dairy farmer who owned Ingleside in Oak Grove. Flemer and son Doug were researching expanding their amateur-scale winemaking. Dr. Recht agreed to act as consultant for three weeks. That was in July 1980.

Today, Virginia ranks seventh among U.S. wine-producing states.

Dr. Recht, who studied winemaking and chemistry in his native Belgium and held a doctoral degree in enology, the science of wine, helped establish many wineries in Virginia and was a consultant to many others as far away as Texas, said Ada Jacox, vice president and chief executive officer of Athena Vineyards in Heathsville. Ingleside was the first, and Athena was the last among them, she said.

Before coming to Virginia, Dr. Recht was a winemaker and consultant in Europe and North Africa.

The American Wine Society gave him its highest honor, the Award of Merit, in 2007, Jacox said, for his contribution to the rebirth of the Virginia wine industry.

"Jacques' work as winemaker and consultant in the Virginia wine industry has been pivotal in the development of fine Virginia wines," the plaque says. "His influence in the evolution of wines of Virginia has also been a positive force in the development of wine production throughout the Eastern United States. . . . The troubleshooting guide that he developed for use by both home and professional winemakers is a landmark piece of work in the genre."

"He made his own wines in the European tradition," Jacox said. "All his wines were elegant."

Dr. Recht wrote more than 120 technical articles for the trade magazine Wine East, under the heading "From Enopion's Scrolls." Enopion was a son of Bacchus, Roman god of wine. Dr. Recht would begin each column with a quote from Greek mythology relevant to the subject, Jacox said.

"He was a real Renaissance man. He had also written books and taught courses in celestial navigation at Old Dominion University and was involved in ODU's enology program," she said.

Athena Vineyards has a new red wine to be released soon: "Jacques Recht Pinot Noir." Dr. Recht was shown the label design shortly before his death.

Ingleside Vineyards plans to hold a memorial service this spring.

In addition to his wife, Dr. Recht is survived by a sister, Yvette Storck.