April, April DRC

Klippt från Wineberserkers och ursprunligen publicerat i Decanter:

Every few hundred years or so is an event that shakes the Burgundy landscape--the development of cork, the classification of vineyards--and now the landscape itself. In a bizarre marriage of technology and finance, the Domaine de la Romanée Conti (DRC) has literally moved an entire vineyard, throwing the INAO into a furor.

Over the last week, using giant earth movers developed by the mining industry, at great expense, DRC has moved its entire monopole vineyard La Tache about 50 kilometers north to the unheralded town of Ensov. Claiming that the French concept of terroir includes not only the land but also the weather, DRC attorneys argued before the INAO arbitration board that climate change and global warming had altered the immutable terroir and that it was necessary--to preserve the vineyard--to move it north, to a cooler clime akin to prior history.

However, DRC moved the vineyard in the stealth of night, claiming that it was done merely to minimize traffic disruption, though others maintain it was to thwart any attempts to prevent the translocation. Using giant earth movers that could dig to depths of 40 meters, the entire 7.5 hectare vineyard was moved in a caravan of pieces that were reassembled in Ensov. March was chosen since the vines were inactive. A DRC spokesman compared the act to moving a sleeping baby to another bed, where it wakes up, unchanged in personality, but refreshed.

Anticipating losses of up to 5% of their vines due to the mega-transplantation, co-owner M. Aubert Villaine noted that DRC long ago had increased its vine density to account for these predicted losses. M. Villaine opined that terroir must at all costs be respected and noted that DRC had already secured land further north in anticipation of yet another vineyard migration in the future. "L'endroit change, donc le terroir ne change jamais," M. Villaine told French reporters.

It is widely anticipated that, as costs of earth-moving technology decrease, more Burgundy domaines will be moving north to preserve their terroir. DRC is hoping to complete over the next few years the relocation of its other holdings.