By Paris Wine Company
on Feb 28, 2022

In Loving Memory of Josh Adler, Founder of Paris Wine Company

Very sadly, Joshua Adler, founder of Paris Wine Company, passed away on 25th February 2022 at the Hôpital Franco-Britannique in Paris, at the age of only 42 years old, after a seven-month ordeal bravely battling pancreatic cancer.

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Born 10th July 1979 in Dayton, Ohio, Josh grew up in Doylestown in Bucks County near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before attending Oberlin College where he graduated in 2001 with a double concentration in art history and English. He originally planned to be a museum curator but an internship at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art told him that his passion was meant to eventually be found elsewhere. He began to travel extensively, starting in France upon graduation, then working in a bike shop in Dublin, then moving to San Francisco where he found a job leading wine tours through the various wine regions of France, something that ignited a passion for wine and led to a position as wine director at Bi-Rite Market. While working at Bi-Rite he helped found The Bike Kitchen as well as 18 Reasons, a non-profit community cooking school. He eventually moved back to France full-time and became wine director at Restaurant Spring in Paris.

In 2012, Josh decided to branch out on his own and founded Paris Wine Company (pariswinecompany.com). From the very beginning, his philosophy was to hand-select exceptional winemakers across France and help them export their wines by developing their networks and matching them up with excellent distributors who would help tell their stories and promote their wines with the highest levels of passion and professionalism. Most of Paris Wine Company’s producers work their own estate vineyards, practice organic or biodynamic farming methods, and use native yeast and minimal intervention during vinification and élevage. In just under a decade, Paris Wine Company has built a strong internal team and come to represent some of the most sought-after wineries in France. Josh’s close team of friends remains in place with the continuing mission to look after each one of their winemakers, distributors, and customers, under the leadership of Francesca Hansen (francesca@pariswinecompany.com) and Ryan Lim (ryan@pariswinecompany.com).

A ceremony will be held honouring Josh’s life on Monday, 7 th March at 3:30pm in the Salle de la Coupole located in the Crématorium of the Cimetière du Père Lachaise, accessed most easily via 71 Rue des Rondeaux, 75020 PARIS. The ceremony will be performed by Josh’s cousin, New York rabbi Jonathon Adler. The family asks that you arrive at the cemetery with a recent rapid negative Covid test and a mask. The ceremony will be livestreamed for those friends and colleagues who are unable to be there (link here / Meeting ID: 827 1377 1170 Passcode : 973609). Josh is survived by his beloved wife, architect Catherine Haas Adler, and their two sons, Max and Paul, as well as his mother Barbara, his sister Lauren and her husband Brandin and their children Ruby and Reggie. His father Donald passed away in 2013.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you make a donation to either the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) in California (www.pancan.org) or Vendanges Solidaires, an association created in 2016 to support winegrowers endangered by climate change here in France (www.vendangessolidaires.com).