Our photo journal this month covers our 2021 red and rosé harvest. Click here if you missed the exciting white version.

First, a quick reaction to the Budget in the UK, delivered on Wednesday by the Chancellor. It’s one with far reaching consequences and much higher prices for many still wines from February 2023, if the Treasury’s new tax plans go ahead. Good news though for UK drinkers of sparkling wines, especially lower alcohol ones. More on that in my piece on the UK budget here.

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Feel free to comment or question on this post. We turned comments back on after ditching them years ago due to spam overload and we seem to have now fixed that. There’s a nifty ‘comment’ icon to the side of the post, making it easy to do so.

PS We are currently in England seeing family and friends, and back on Sunday night.

Time to sniff out what happened with our red harvest.

We had to be patient this year, and it was a late harvest.

This was the Merlot just in front of the Château, the day before the start of the rosé harvest.

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For a few years now, we’ve put this Merlot into our Rosé, rather than the red, and the start of our Rosé harvest is often kicked off with a rosé dawn.

We ferry the grapes to the winery swiftly.

And they go straight into the press.

Most of this block is harvested before dawn, and the grapes are nice and cold.

We’ve shown before that the machine is pretty efficient. Here’s the before pic in this block of Merlot.

And here’s the after one.

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Once the Rosé harvest begins – sandwiched between the whites and the reds for reds – there’s a lot to bring in.

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We only have a few old Malbec vines, left. Merlot on the right, and that’s the first constituent of our Rosé.

After the Merlot comes the Cabernet Franc, above. This adds vigour, crunch and acidity.

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The third part is Cabernet Sauvignon. Again, acidity, flavour and a certain steeliness. Or something.

With Rosé, we’re working quickly to bring in and press the different varieties – Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

A fairly consistent stream of tractors and trailers.

For a fairly pale rosé from such dark grapes, we have to get the juice off quickly.

Rosé juice from Cabernet Franc.

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Temperature controlled fermentation is key. Rosé juice, like white, is cool fermented.

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And we end up with a lot of pressed skins.

We made so much rosé this year we had to hire another press.

In our September missive, we looked back at the harvest 10 years ago. Here was Tom in 2011. The press hasn’t changed.

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But Tom has. 11th October 2021 was his 18th birthday.

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We took him into Bordeaux for an al fresco lunch and to buy his birthday present. (Well, to check he liked one of the watches we’d pre-selected at the shop. Thankfully, he did.)

The first few weeks of October saw some lovely weather, though we were a little tied up. At the château, the builders and plumbers were ever present, and did a terrific job. The bathrooms now all work, nearly, and the wine cellar ceiling under the kitchen and dining room is no longer at risk of caving in.

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Back to the reds and the late sunshine was most welcome. Here we pulled the leaves away from around the fruit zone to reduce any risk of rot.

We harvested our reds in mid-October. That’s quite late for Merlot.

We have though made much less red than rosé in 2021.

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We’re pleased with the quality, especially after a growing season that one could describe as ‘challenging’. We will report back as the wines take shape.

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For the reds, we no longer needed the extra press. On the right is Michel demonstrating the sophisticated communication system for directing the tractor driver when backing up the trailer of grapes to the sorting table.

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The press is used upfront for the whites and rosé, but for reds the whole lot – skins, pips and all – go straight into the fermentation tanks.

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Margaux is always an early riser. Probably more so than some others.

On the sorting table. Sandra, Daniel, Michel, Sophie, GQ and Angela.

Last month we showed a flashback to the 2001 harvest.

The 2001 harvest team.

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Our neighbour Stéphane went one better. Stéphane Defraine owns and runs Château de Fontenile nearby but in the eighties and nineties he was the resident manager and winemaker at Bauduc, just before our time. His first vintage was 1981, and he was kind enough to bring round a bottle that his father had found in his cellar. We’ve not opened it, as it’s pretty unique.

Fast forward 30 years to 2011 and here’s Guy our harvest machine man with Daniel, Nelly and Tom.

Here’s Guy once more, in 2021, with Daniel and Nelly, plus our harvest helpers Bruno, left, Sophie, between the dogs, and Winnie, right.

We had a few gaps where we could drive off and see the Bordeaux harvest in action. Here, for example, at Château Lafite in Pauillac.

Sophie checking up on the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Closer to home for us, watching the Merlot come in at Vieux Château Certan in Pomerol. More of the harvest elsewhere in Bordeaux anon.

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Poor Bruno was left to work all hours. On the right, the tasting room where we play around with the blends of the different tanks.

I almost forgot. We had a few questions last month about what happens to the grape-skins.

Just like here in 2011 with Tom, a lorry comes and takes them all away to a local distillery. A big distillery at that but nothing grand, I’m afraid: industrial alcohol, like cleaning fluid.

An autumnal scene to end with: Michel, who has helped us with every vintage despite now being in his late 80s, fetching the logs for winter.