The end of an era… as Daniel retires – part two

July 08 2026

Daniel our vineyard manager – a photo journal 1999-2026, part two

Our vineyard manager Daniel retired at the end of June, having started at Bauduc way back in 1985. We have put together a photo journal of his time with us, and we sent the first part out last week – click here if you missed it.

Here’s the second part. Above is a photo of Daniel and Nelly with us five years ago during the 2021 harvest. We’ve all worked together since our first harvest in 1999 – we took Nelly on as a trainee then.

If you have any comments or questions, please email Georgie, Angela and Gavin by clicking this link, or reply to this email and Georgie or Angela will get back to you.

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The end of an era… as Daniel retires

July 01 2026

Daniel our vineyard manager – a photo journal 1999-2026, part one

Tuesday, 30 June 2026 was the last working day for Daniel, our vineyard manager. Remarkably, he’s been at Château Bauduc for over forty years and of course he’s been with us since our first harvest in 1999. We said our goodbyes this morning (below).

2025 was his final harvest and when people talk of Bordeaux 2025 being another in the series of excellent vintages that end in five or indeed zero, it is extraordinary to think that Daniel was here at the very start of that sequence in 1985 (1980 not having been a good year).

We celebrated his last day with a fine lunch in our garden with his partner Christine, a few Quinneys and some of his closest colleagues. We kicked off with our Crémant de Bordeaux 2021, and it’s appropriate that our photo at the top of the page is of Daniel with the baskets of grapes for that wine. It’s also timely that Victoria Moore described our 2021 as ‘excellent’ in her review in The Telegraph last weekend of ‘the best (and worst) crémants of the summer’.

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May 2026 – a photojournal

May 29 2026

Mid-thirties for the whole of the last week of May is utterly bonkers. During the first fortnight, we were asking how we translate ’ne’er cast a clout till May is out’ as it was chilly and wet, and then it was all change.

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Tom Gilbey’s videos and other nonsense

May 01 2026

As we head into the Bank Holiday weekend – Friday 1st May in France, Monday 4th in the UK – below are the links to not one but two videos uploaded by our great friend Tom Gilbey on YouTube in April.

Angela and I are in the Médoc today, north of the city of Bordeaux, after a long week. We’ll return to the serious stuff of running the vineyard another time.

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Bordeaux 2025 weather and crop report

April 02 2026

This report was published on Jancis Robinson’s fine wine website and also on Liv-ex – the fine wine market site.

For the Easter weekend, there’s nothing better than an in-depth report on Bordeaux 2025. To be fair, and the weather last year apart, the production statistics are quite something: half the amount of wine produced than in 2016, the lowest crop since 1991 (again) and 20,000 hectares of vines (50,000 acres) along with 1,000 growers gone in three years. Crikey.

Crémant is on the up though…

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Start of the year – a photo journal

February 26 2026

This month’s news review is a meandering journal of images to scroll through at your leisure. The vineyard, fallen trees, floods, the bottling, various trips and family snaps – life’s rich tapestry.

We’ll leave the spring sales pitch for the not too distant future.

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The Budget – UK duty on wine

November 27 2025

As there was no mention of alcohol duties by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in her Budget speech, this is a doom Thursday briefing rather than a Black Friday sales pitch.

It’s hardly headline news – and barely gets a mention elsewhere – but UK duty on wine is set to rise again by the RPI of 3.66% on 1 February. Now that doesn’t sound a lot – about 9-12p plus VAT on a bottle of wine – but this should be seen in the context of the recent hikes and absurd levels of admin, courtesy of the Conservatives’ new wine duty system and not helped by a new Labour government which endorsed the policy and added further costs.

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Gary Barlow at Bauduc – Oct photo journal

October 31 2025

We’ve had a lot on this month, with more to come, so here’s a rambling journal of images to flick through at your leisure.

Our vineyard manager Daniel will achieve the extraordinary feat of having worked at Château Bauduc for 40 years tomorrow. We’re having a lunch in his honour today as it’s a national holiday on 1 November – and no doubt he’ll want to put his feet up, and deservedly so.

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Red harvest photo journal – Sept 2025

October 01 2025

Last Friday we brought in the last grapes for what must be our longest running harvest yet. You may have seen that we kicked off with the grapes for our Crémant way back on 19 August (see the August photo journal for our white harvest) though, to be fair, the Cabernet Sauvignon is always much later to ripen.

Below are some images of the red harvest, both here and a few from elsewhere in Bordeaux. There should be some outstanding wines from the 2025 vintage.

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Our August harvest 2025 – photo journal

August 29 2025

Welcome to our photo journal and the earliest ever harvest – for us, at least.

Above is a rare family shot of Angela, Georgie, Sophie and Tom Quinney picking white grapes in the rows of verdant vines. We started on the 19th August.

We even began harvesting red grapes for making rosé today, Friday 29th, which is unheard of in August here. After zilch since 13 June, we had rain today and more is forecast, so it’s all very exciting.

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