First Meeting with Hermitage Vignerons and representatives of the engineering company ITAS TIM

Hermitage vignerons together with Michel Chapoutier – the president of Hermitage vignerons – and the mayor of Tain l’Hermitage, met representatives of the French engineering company ITAS TIM on July 24th. That first meeting was an important oppor-tunity to find adapted solutions after the announcement of plans to erect an 18-metre (54-foot) TV mast on the world-famous hill of Hermitage.

Michel Chapoutier has declared: “I am delighted that the vast majority of us, mostly vignerons for generations from father to son, preferred negotiation rather than conflict. It is obvi-ous that we can not remain indifferent to the visual pollution caused by not only one but two antennas. Discussions about moving these two antennas are at the heart of our project. For centuries, winemakers in Hermitage helped make this hill the most beautiful possible, treating this land with re-spect and humility. We want to continue in the same way and make the name of these unique white and red wines even more prestigious around the world.”

In order to move forward on this project, various concrete ac-tions were proposed during the meeting. The proposals made were either 1) moving the two antennas or 2) hiding the an-tennas with a technique proposed by ITAS TIM. From now on, the various parties have committed to pass information on to each other in the coming weeks in order to find a positive solution.