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The vines of Polynesia
I was sent an email recently by a Stéphane Morganti, a French student 
who has spent the last six months working in vineyards in French Polynesia, as the French call what we British call Tahiti.
who has spent the last six months working in vineyards in French Polynesia, as the French call what we British call Tahiti.For a report on terroir he was writing he wanted to know whether I knew of any other vineyards planted on rangiroa soil as on the Tuamutus archipelago shown here. Well I certainly don’t. Do you?
Further investigation revealed Domaine Dominique Auroy, which has Carignan, Muscat Hamburg and Italia (the last two being table grapes) planted by a coconut grove on this beautiful-looking spit of land between a lagoon and the ocean. Harvesting twice a year, and shipping the grapes across the lagoon to the winery as below, Auroy manages to make about 30,000 bottles of red, white and rosé a year. Has anyone tried it?
To find out more about tropical viticulture, consult this entry in your online Oxford Companion to Wine – which I now realise is incomplete. Tahiti will of course feature in the fourth edition…
