Clos Roche Blanche, 2010 Update
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experiences of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so“.
So wrote the late Douglas Adams, not in any of his Hitchhiker’s Guide novels, which are only naturally the first to spring to mind, but in Last Chance to See (1990), which Adams co-authored with environmentalist Mark Carwardine. This book was something of a diversion for Adams, a factual account – although liberally and yet sensitively laced with humour, as evinced by my selected quote above – of Adams’ and Carwardine’s journeys across the globe in search of near-extinct species such as the Yangtze River Dolphin (since believed to have disappeared from this earth forever) and Zaire gorillas.
Last Chance to See is not, despite its erstwhile subject matter, one of Adams’ better known books. I recall when listening to Adams speak at a student society in the early 1990s that it never received a mention, as all attention – without any cause for surprise I suppose – was focused on Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Arthur Dent and their many companions. At least that is how I remember it; it was twenty-or-so years ago, and I wasn’t taking notes at the time! Nevertheless Last Chance was clearly a personal favourite for Adams, as he revealed in his posthumous biography and collection of essays The Salmon of Doubt (2002).
Last chance to see – or rather last chance to taste – is a phrase that might be applied to Clos Roche Blanche. Just as Adams and Carwardine helplessly observed exotic species, their numbers dwindling before their eyes, so too I watch this domaine seemingly shrink year on year. No, it is not yet extinct, and both Catherine Roussel (pictured) and Didier Barrouillet are fighting fit, but as both are now in their fifties they have certainly been winding things down at Clos Roche Blanche in recent years. Once there were 28 hectares, but a large chunk was sold to Junko Arai in 2002, and thereafter until the 2008 vintage they were working with 18 hectares. By 2009 this was down by almost half, as the pair decided to rent out 8.5 hectares, the lucky beneficiary being their friend and fellow vigneron Noëlla Morantin. I had hoped to meet Morantin earlier this year, but my luck was out. Another day, I guess.
