Reason and common sense have been invited to the agenda of the municipal council of Saint-Guiraud, a wine-growing village of 200 inhabitants 20 minutes by car from the Metropolis of Montpellier (Hérault). This Tuesday, after a picrocholine war of about ten years, the elected officials agreed to grant a right of way that will allow Enedis technicians to extend the electrical network to the famous estate of Virgil and Magdalena Joly.
The other question of connection to drinking water...
These exceptional winegrowers operate the Joly estate, 28 hectares in organic and Terrasses du Larzac appellation, which was designated last autumn by a college of experts in London "the most sustainable estate in the world". Since about ten years since they settled in Saint-Guiraud, after leaving the neighboring village of Saint-Saturnin, the couple and their children live and vinify their cuvées without water or electricity, because they are not connected to the networks.
So far, solar panels and a generator have allowed them to operate but sustainability has its limits. Virgile Joly welcomes "this considerable progress" but remains cautious. The electricity project is still to be done before being able to press the switch and see the appearance of electricity fairy as in most French homes and businesses since at least the 1960s. Especially since the other thorny problem, that of connection to the drinking water network, a competence of the community of communes of the Hérault Valley, is not yet on the agenda. Progress is long overdue.