When Jayson Woodbridge, a former Canadian infantryman turned banker, changed careers and founded a winery in Napa Valley in 1998, he named it Hundred Acre. The name was a tribute to A.A. Milne’s “...” and was meant to evoke carefree whimsy. More recently, however, Mr Woodbridge has been pondering a different sort of fiction: that of Franz Kafka, famous for his portrayals of labyrinthine bureaucracy.

加拿大前步兵出身的銀行家杰森·伍德布里奇轉(zhuǎn)行于1998年在納帕山谷創(chuàng)辦了一家酒莊，他為酒莊取名為“百畝田（Hundred Acre）”，這個(gè)名字是對(duì)A.A.米爾恩創(chuàng)作的維尼小熊的致敬，意在喚起無(wú)憂無(wú)慮的幻想。然而，就在前不久，伍德布里奇一直在琢磨另一種類型的故事：例如，弗朗茨·卡夫卡（Franz Kafka）的小說(shuō)，以描繪迷宮般的官僚主義而聞名。
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In October Mr Woodbridge sued Napa County in a state court for “administrative overreach”, accusing it of creating “mountainous red tape and endless bureaucratic obstacles” for him and other vineyard owners. He says he spent about six months listening to “other people’s stories about how bad” regulatory overreach had become and decided “somebody’s got to do something, and that somebody is me.”

10月，伍德布里奇在一個(gè)州法庭上起訴納帕縣“行政管理過(guò)度”，指控納帕縣對(duì)他和其他葡萄酒莊園主造成了“堆成山的紅葡萄和沒(méi)完沒(méi)了的官僚阻礙”。他表示過(guò)去6個(gè)月他了解了“其他人關(guān)于過(guò)度行政管理造成的后果有多少糟糕”，并且決定“總要有人做點(diǎn)什么，那么這個(gè)人就是我”。
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The lawsuit came after the catastrophic Glass Fire in 2020, which burned nearly 70,000 acres in Northern California, including some of Mr Woodbridge’s property. After about a year of looking at the charred remains of trees, Mr Woodbridge decided to remove the stumps and experiment with “dry--farming” new vines, by putting young plants in pots with no bottoms in the hope that they would put down roots in the soil below. Napa County learned of the experiment and, threatening penalties, demanded he cease and replant the trees that had been there before, because he had not gone through the process of applying for a permit or doing an environmental review.

這場(chǎng)官司發(fā)生在2020年“玻璃大火”事件后，這場(chǎng)大火燒掉了北加利福尼亞州7萬(wàn)英畝土地，包括伍德布里奇擁有的土地。在觀察了一年剩下的燒焦的葡萄樹后，伍德布里奇決定移除樹樁，并且用新葡萄藤試驗(yàn)“旱地耕作”，他把幼苗種在沒(méi)有底的花盆里，希望他們能夠在下面的土壤里生根。納帕縣聽(tīng)說(shuō)了這個(gè)試驗(yàn)，威脅要對(duì)其罰款，要求伍德布里奇停止種植，并且把原先在這里的葡萄樹重新種下去，因?yàn)樗麤](méi)有辦理申請(qǐng)?jiān)S可，或者進(jìn)行環(huán)境評(píng)估。

Defiant and defensive of his property rights, Mr Woodbridge accuses the county of arbitrary meddling. He says he did not move any earth for the vines, so was not required to apply for a permit. He also points out that vineyards serve as natural firebreaks, unlike flammable tree species. Napa County says Hundred Acre has “created an environmental hazard”, leaving the hillside land “at high risk of erosion”. On November 28th it filed a response to Mr Woodbridge’s complaint and asked that the lawsuit be dismissed by the court with prejudice, because the actions for which he seeks relief and damages are “due to the acts and omissions” of Hundred Acre.

出于反抗和對(duì)自己財(cái)產(chǎn)的保護(hù)，伍德布里奇控告縣政府任意干涉。他說(shuō)他沒(méi)有因?yàn)榉N植葡萄藤移走任何泥土，所以不需要申請(qǐng)?jiān)S可。他還指出葡萄園就是一個(gè)天然防火墻，和易燃的植株不同。納帕縣表示百畝田“制造了一場(chǎng)環(huán)境災(zāi)難”，把坡地置于“極高的侵蝕風(fēng)險(xiǎn)”之中。今年11月28日，納帕縣出具了對(duì)伍德布里奇訴求的答復(fù)意見(jiàn)，并要求法院以偏見(jiàn)駁回訴訟，因?yàn)樗麑で缶葷?jì)和損害賠償是“由于百畝田的作為和不作為”。

Defiant and defensive of his property rights, Mr Woodbridge accuses the county of arbitrary meddling. He says he did not move any earth for the vines, so was not required to apply for a permit. He also points out that vineyards serve as natural firebreaks, unlike flammable tree species. Napa County says Hundred Acre has “created an environmental hazard”, leaving the hillside land “at high risk of erosion”. On November 28th it filed a response to Mr Woodbridge’s complaint and asked that the lawsuit be dismissed by the court with prejudice, because the actions for which he seeks relief and damages are “due to the acts and omissions” of Hundred Acre.

出于反抗和對(duì)自己財(cái)產(chǎn)的保護(hù)，伍德布里奇控告縣政府任意干涉。他說(shuō)他沒(méi)有因?yàn)榉N植葡萄藤移走任何泥土，所以不需要申請(qǐng)?jiān)S可。他還指出葡萄園就是一個(gè)天然防火墻，和易燃的植株不同。納帕縣表示百畝田“制造了一場(chǎng)環(huán)境災(zāi)難”，把坡地置于“極高的侵蝕風(fēng)險(xiǎn)”之中。今年11月28日，納帕縣出具了對(duì)伍德布里奇訴求的答復(fù)意見(jiàn)，并要求法院以偏見(jiàn)駁回訴訟，因?yàn)樗麑で缶葷?jì)和損害賠償是“由于百畝田的作為和不作為”。
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The lawsuit is noteworthy because it speaks to broader concerns about the business climate in one of the world’s most famed wine regions, which attracts around 3.8m tourists a year. Napa has become a microcosm of California, which is notorious for heavy regulation and lack of friendliness to business. Napa Valley vintners are facing numerous obstacles, including drought and the threat of another big fire, which ruined most producers’ 2020 vintage, but “over-regulation is the single most important issue for small wineries,” according to Stuart Smith, the founder of Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery. He says, “Fire risk is number two.”

這場(chǎng)官司值得關(guān)注，因?yàn)樗鼮榇蟊婈P(guān)心的世界上最負(fù)盛名的葡萄酒地域的商業(yè)環(huán)境發(fā)聲，這里每年吸引380萬(wàn)游客來(lái)訪。納帕成為加利福尼亞的縮影，這里有臭名昭著的繁重監(jiān)管和不友好的商業(yè)環(huán)境。納帕山谷的釀酒師們還要面對(duì)數(shù)不盡的阻礙，包括干旱和另一場(chǎng)大火的威脅（2020年的一場(chǎng)大火摧毀了大部分生產(chǎn)商2020年份的葡萄酒），但是“對(duì)小釀酒廠來(lái)說(shuō)，過(guò)度監(jiān)管是他們面對(duì)的唯一最重要的麻煩”，史密斯-麥道奧酒莊的創(chuàng)始人斯圖爾特·史密斯說(shuō)道，“大火只能排第二”。
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Bottles and bureaucracy
Mr Smith has worked in Napa Valley for 50 years but believes the county government is “frankly hostile to the wine industry”. Rules are strict and unevenly enforced. For example, Napa is the only wine-growing region in the world that does not allow weddings, says Mr Smith. (A handful of wineries were grandfathered in and are exempt.) Napa restricts wineries’ ability to profit from food sales or sell products other than wine. “The over-regulation is so onerous that people go around it as much as they can,” says Mr Smith, leading to a “classic black-market system”.

葡萄酒和官僚主義
史密斯在納帕山谷工作了50年，他認(rèn)為縣政府“對(duì)釀酒業(yè)的敵視顯而易見(jiàn)”。規(guī)則嚴(yán)格且執(zhí)行力度不均。史密斯說(shuō)，比如，納帕是世界上唯一一個(gè)不允許舉報(bào)婚禮的葡萄酒產(chǎn)區(qū)。（很多葡萄酒廠是從祖上繼承下來(lái)的，而且是免稅的）。納帕限制了酒莊從銷售食品或葡萄酒以外的產(chǎn)品獲得利潤(rùn)的能力?！斑^(guò)度監(jiān)管如此繁多，以至于人們盡可能地繞過(guò)它”，史密斯表示，這導(dǎo)致了“一個(gè)經(jīng)典的黑市系統(tǒng)”。

A recent lawsuit by Napa County, suing Hoopes Vineyard, a small, family-owned winery, illustrates the local government’s thirst for a fight. It accuses the winery of various violations that constitute a “public nuisance”, including offering yoga classes, selling greeting cards and hand sanitiser, and failing to obtain a building permit for a structure that is more than 120 square feet (11 squaremetres). This is a chicken coop, according to Lindsay Hoopes, the boss. Ms Hoopes says the issue in Napa is not regulation itself but “unprincipled bureaucracy” and how it seems everybody is held to different rules. “The Napa permitting process has become this terror of never knowing what you’re going to get next,” she says.

最近，納帕縣起訴了一家小型的家族酒莊，胡珀酒莊，這說(shuō)明當(dāng)?shù)卣畬?duì)加入戰(zhàn)斗的渴望。它控告這家酒莊違反了多項(xiàng)規(guī)定，造成“公害”，包括提供瑜伽課程，銷售賀卡和洗手液，未獲得超過(guò)120平方英尺（11平方米）的建筑許可證。據(jù)酒莊老板琳賽·胡珀說(shuō)，這是個(gè)雞籠。胡珀女士表示，納帕的問(wèn)題不是監(jiān)管，而是“無(wú)原則的官僚主義”，而且似乎每個(gè)人都遵循著不同的法律，“納帕審批流程讓人恐慌，你永遠(yuǎn)不知道下一步會(huì)得到什么。”

Regulators are under pressure from environmentalists, who are concerned about everything from congestion to soil erosion, and may feel nostalgia for a time when Napa was more rural. But winemakers, too, face many difficulties, from declining demand among young people to climate risk, labour shortages and a slowing economy. “It would be good for the people applying the rules to spend two months working in the winery to understand how hard it is,” suggests Jonathan Pey, a winemaker. Mr Pey has ended his California wine ventures and has decamped to France to produce Beaujolais.

監(jiān)管者也在環(huán)保主義者的壓迫之下，這些人關(guān)心從交通堵塞到土壤侵蝕的一切問(wèn)題，而且可能對(duì)更加鄉(xiāng)村的納帕感到懷舊，但是釀酒師面臨的很多困難，從年輕人逐漸降低的需求到氣候威脅，勞工短缺以及經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退。釀酒師喬納森·佩伊說(shuō)“最好讓制定規(guī)則的人在酒莊工作兩個(gè)月，這樣他們就能理解到底有多難了”。佩伊已經(jīng)結(jié)束了他在加州的葡萄酒生意，并且逃到法國(guó)生產(chǎn)博若萊葡萄酒。

Others are staying closer to home. Caymus, one of Napa’s most famous winemakers, recently expanded production and tasting in Suisun Valley, a 40-minute drive east of Napa. The business climate in Napa played a part in the decision—giving new meaning to a flight of wine.

其他人留在離家近的地方。納帕最有名的釀酒師之一佳慕最近在Suisun山谷擴(kuò)大了生產(chǎn)并召開了葡萄酒品嘗會(huì)，這里距離納帕有40分鐘車程。納帕的商業(yè)環(huán)境在這一決定中發(fā)揮了作用，為葡萄酒的起飛賦予了新的意義。

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