Henry Frédéric Roch founded Domaine Prieuré Roch in 1988. Mindful of the wine-making traditions and pedological singularity of the Burgundy terroir, he developed and enhanced the domaine by scrupulously applying the ancestral methods of tending the vines, the vinification , and cellering which have historically made the wines of Burgundy so glorious, methods known today as “organics” and “bio-dynamics”. Becoming co-director of Romanée Conti following the death of his brother Charles, he shares his viticultural vision and his passion of fine wines with Yannick Champ, whom he has nominated co-director of Domaine Prieuré Roch. At first, like everyone, we managed using what is called... “la lutte raisonnée”, or “the reasoned struggle”. But very quickly we tried to think of other techniques, because of its limits, even if it is a kind of organic farming. Among other problems was “apoplexy”, it's when vineyards seem to die for no reason, this along with degenerative diseases, which became more and more obvious, even among mature vines. Soil characteristics would become totally disrupted, and obviously needed treatment... to try to help remedy the situation, to be more precise. All of this meant we were looking for alternatives. Others had already begun to explore alternatives, although rarely among the grand crus. A bit but rarely. As soon as we could we began using organic farming techniques. We got into it quickly. We've actually been rather satisfied, although we had decreases in yields. Certainly for a few years, the vineyard tried to understand us... and we tried to understand the vineyard, but quickly enough things became stable, without tremendous fluctuations... meaning we had much lower highs... but also fairly stable minimums. Especially in the very old vineyards, with the over 35 year-old vines... began to flourish quite well. No doubt thanks to their root systems, This meant the behavior of the vines was expressed more reliably, was more sustainable.