Bourbaud was born in 1837 in Cognac where, as his obituary stated, “he passed his early life among vine-growing pursuits”. He became a lieutenant in the navy, and received two medals from Queen Victoria for his services in the Crimean War. His distinguished army service included being a captain in the National Guard in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. At some time he was a member of the National Agricultural, Industrial, and Commercial Academy of Paris.

Samuel Davenport, at the time President of the Agricultural Society and the Chamber of Manufactures in Adelaide , initiated correspondence with the South Australian Government on the subject of importing skilled labour from Europe . Davenport , a parliamentarian, promoter of South Australian industry, and himself a winegrower, firmly believed the colony needed people with practical experience in the world's leading wine-producing countries. FS Dutton, Agent-General for South Australia in London , interviewed Bourbaud and gave him and his family free passage to South Australia in the hope that “their services might be turned to useful account in connection with the wine interest and other important industries”. The family landed in South Australia aboard the ship Coonatto in August 1875.

Bourbaud's arrival was reported with great interest by the monthly paper, The Garden and Field. Only a couple of weeks after he landed it published a translation of a document Bourbaud placed before a meeting of the Vignerons' Club. In it he said he believed that “South Australia appears… to possess all the advantages necessary to make it an important and flourishing wine-producing country, either for producing the more common sorts of wine consumed by the working classes, or also for the production of high-class wines which would be superior or at least bid fair to rival those of the best vineyards of Europe”. Warming to his task, Bourbaud continued: “I have great hopes of being able to make wines here which will resemble several of the high-class wines of France, and also others having a peculiar original character of their own, which could not be found in any of the European vineyards. South Australian vineyards have the best prospects of a brilliant future.”

Bourbaud was certainly not the first - or the last - to make these claims. But he had a plan, at profit to himself, to achieve them. He believed most South Australian cellars contained “considerable quantities of defective or damaged wines which cannot be consumed”, thereby losing their owners revenue. His detailed proposal included employing his time and his expertise “by staying one or two days with each proprietor, according to the urgency or importance of the work. At the time of the vintage means would be found to travel most rapidly night and day without ceasing up to the time of drawing the wine off the casks”. For this he would require “an engagement of four to five years at a weekly salary of £10, charging travelling expenses incurred”. If he did not fulfill the conditions he had set out then the arrangement would be annulled after 12 months.

It seems that not enough vignerons attended the meeting to make a commitment to Bourbaud's proposal, and those who did had some doubts. Not surprisingly, some wanted to know more about his suitability, and there was concern about the four or five years' commitment required. So the members set up a subcommittee. They agreed Bourbaud would be “retained by wine-growers as wine-adviser at a fee of £10 each”. In other words, he would be a wine industry consultant.

What happened about this scheme I don't yet know, but in October 1876, just a year later, The Garden and Field reported that a company had been formed in Adelaide called the South Australian United Vineyard Association, with Bourbaud as manager. Its aims were different from the earlier proposal. This time consumers, not winegrowers, were the target. The purpose was to introduce “to the public, and especially to the labouring portion of it, the pure wines made by the shareholders, at such a price as will enable them to be used freely without dipping too deeply into their pockets”. There were only eight members, who had the difficult task of cultivating “the taste of society (not only of the working classes, but also of others claiming to be of the Upper Ten Thousand) as to induce them to drink only for refreshment, and not to get drunk”. The sentiments are reminiscent of those of Australian pioneer winegrower James Busby some 50 years earlier.

Whatever Bourbaud's skills might have been, the enterprise was not a success. In 12 months he had resigned from the position of manager, and the association folded soon after.

Something of a persuasive entrepreneur, Bourbaud had as his next venture a preserved meats and general exporting business, grandly named the Franco-Australian Alimentary Company. This apparently operated from his home in Archer Street, North Adelaide , and survived for four years, a little longer than its predecessors.