French Champagne house buys Californian vineyards

Roederer Estate, the company's Californian outpost, has bought 27.41 acres on neigbouring land.

The new vineyard property has 17.56 acres of planted and producing Pinot Noir which increases the Roederer Estate's vineyard ownership to 486.36 acres in the Anderson Valley in total.

Arnaud Weyrich, winemaker and vice president of production at Roederer Estates, said: "With the combination of our recent vineyard purchase and the addition of our new cask room with 10 new large oak casks that were installed in September 2007, Roederer Estate's future looks very bright."