The Appelation Highway

Plans to build a new highway south of Lyon could devastate the celebrated vineyards of Co^te-Ro^tie and Condrieu, which produce some of France’s richest wines, area winemakers said last week.

“If the motorway is built through our vineyards, it will mean their death,” said Philippe Guigal, whose family’s holdings produce some of the region’s best-known wines.

The winemakers said France’s leftist government has revived a plan, discarded by an earlier conservative government, to build a highway passing through the Co^te-Ro^tie and Condrieu vineyards near this town about 25 miles south of Lyon.

Two of the four alternative routes for the highway call for a four-mile tunnel to be built under the vineyards, the winemakers said.

The construction of the tunnel and the resulting air pollution from traffic would threaten the area’s farming activities, they said.

“There are similar dangers in Pomerol, in Beaujolais, in Chateauneuf du Pape. This is a tragic situation,” said Jerome Quiot of INAO, which classifies and protects prized agricultural goods grown in specific regions of France. “Particularly in a country that claims to be so devoted to the protection of its wine heritage.”