Vineyard Rights - Grape Expectations - page 96

A few days later, however, in a chance discussion with Cécile at our weekly meeting, we
realised that the previous owners had not declared their arrachage or 'grubbing up' of a
small vineyard a few years before. Grubbing up is the removal of old vines from a vineyard
no longer in production. If they had declared this grubbing up, as was legally required, the
rights forthevineyard wouldbeavailable toplant elsewhere ontheproperty,foruptoeight
years. Cécile thought it had been grubbed up about five years before so she was hopeful we
would be able to use these rights.
I called the douanes , the French customs department, who controlled active vineyard
planting rights, and asked if there was any hope for us to declare the arrachage and reclaim
the rights.
'Ça dépend,' said Madame, the same lady who had helped me through the 'you have no
white vines' crisis. 'Write us a letter and we will look into it.'
Afewmonthslatertwo douanes officialsarrivedatthepropertytoverifythatthevineyard
was indeed grubbed up. It was easy to see where the vineyard had been as the trellising
poles were still in place.
'The problem is that we don't know when it was grubbed up,' said Madame. 'Unless we
can verify that it was in the year you claim, we won't be able to help you.'
The future looked uncertain for the old peach field. A month later Madame from the dou-
anes called me.
'We found a reference to the vineyard in a contrôle by one of our officials the year before
you claim it was pulled up so we can permit you to do a late déclaration d'arrachage .'
Christmas had arrived.
' Par contre , the previous owners overplanted by four ares which we will have to subtract
from the rights and you will have to pay a ninety-euro fine for the late declaration. You
must come into our offices to do the formalities.'
(There are 100 'ares' in a hectare, and for those on the imperial system 1 hectare is equal
to 2,47 acres, which are not the same as ares.)
'No problem,' I said quickly.
The reduction meant my Christmas present was down by 10 per cent but I felt like I had
conquered the world. We still had to plant it and then wait five years, of course. To get aid
for the planting of the vineyard we would have to plant at a higher density which meant
buying a new tractor and associated machinery. That was a dilemma for another day. At
least this small success meant there was hope for a portion of the old peach field getting
productive again.