Category Archives: Chateau Bauduc

Dealing with Mr. Angry online

July 28 2010

We hardly ever get emails from irate customers, or potential customers, so this one really stood out. Forgive me for the length of this article but I thought I’d reproduce the exchange in full, excluding contact blurb etc. The customer’s emails are in Blue, my wife Angela’s in Mauve, mine in black.

ctrlaltdelARE YOU IDIOTS DELIBERATELY TRYING TO STOP PEOPLE BUYING YOUR WINE? AFTER 17 ATTEMPTS TO PUT IN MY PASSWORD I GAVE UP. I THOUGHT YOU COULD STICK IT.

Really sorry you had so much trouble with the website – I will try and find out why your password didn’t work.  If you let me know what wine you would like we can arrange to have it delivered for you.

All the best, Angela

From: Gavin Quinney    Subject: Re: Password, idiots and so on

Dear xxxx Thanks for the email. Obviously our website gave you some problems, so sorry about that. I’m afraid I can’t find you registered on our system at all. When you put in your email address, at the question:

‘Are you a new or existing online customer?’

Did you click ‘I am a new customer’ or ‘I am an existing customer, and my password is..’?

If you click ‘I am a new customer’ it should work.  By all means give me a call.

Kind regards, Gavin Quinney (aka Chief Idiot) Keep reading

Planting a Vineyard in the Dragons’ Den

July 21 2010

Bauduc Bondholders had a sense of déjà vu last week as English winegrower Geoff Bowen pitched for a £60,000 investment in a vineyard scheme near Exeter, in the first of a new series of the BBC show. Confident that 20 wine lovers would splash out £9,500 for 5 cases of English sparkling wine a year for 10 years, he wooed canny Duncan Bannatyne.

b006vq92_178_100“There are some really toe-curling moments in the Den,” reads the BBC Dragons’ Den website. “And they don’t come worse that Geoff’s opening minutes in front of the Dragons.

“The Devon-based winemaker starts his pitch and immediately faces the moment entrepreneurs dread – he completely forgets his lines.

“Seconds pass like hours as he struggles to regain his composure under the baleful eye of the silent Dragons.”

Reminded of the brilliant spoof by Harry and Paul (below) sweating nervously in front of the Dragons, I watched with interest as Geoff recovered to explain that he could entice 20 members of the public to pay £9500 for 600 bottles of his sparkling wine, spread over the next ten years. With a few extra costs, it would work out to £20 a bottle, he estimated. Keep reading

The World Cup: Sacre Bleu

June 30 2010

At least England lasted longer than France, finalists four years ago.

p1050321The locals have hardly mentioned Les Bleus, and the headlines across Europe have been ferocious at their teams’ poor showings. Meanwhile, our seasonal workers are happy with their cut-price Rooney shirts: most of them are Morrocan so anything to have a dig at Algeria, France or, to a lesser extent, England.

As well as some of the more hilarious headlines, here are a couple of our favourite views on the French catastrophe that have been doing the rounds. First, a brilliant Bayeux Tapestry-inspired cartoon (click on the image to enlarge) from Dotmund and secondly, this short of video of why Henry wasn’t on top form.

Plot to Poison Vines and other Conspiracies

May 08 2010

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There was an extraordinary story in both the Torygraph and the Grauniad this week about one of the world’s greatest wine estates being blackmailed by some chap who threatened to poison the precious vines. The dastardly villain, who must be a bunch short of a full basket, tried to extract €1 million from Aubert de Villaine, the co-director of Domaine de la Romanée Conti in Burgundy, and to prove his evil intentions he nobbled a priceless Pinot. Monsieur de Villaine, who was named recently by Decanter magazine as their ‘Man of the Year’, managed to trap the plonker with the aid of the local gendarmes and a stash of false banknotes.

Four years ago, I thought we had a similar situation on our hands at Bauduc when I found a row of young vines (above) which looked for all the world like they’d been poisoned. Over 100 recently planted Sauvignon Blanc vines had died in mysterious circumstances and there appeared to be no natural reason as to why the leaves had literally withered on the vine. Keep reading

5 Tips for Choosing Wine in a Restaurant

January 22 2010

dsc_0009Jean-Marie Pratt – pictured here in informal attire – has been the Head Sommelier at Gordon Ramsay’s eponymous three Michelin star restaurant in Chelsea for three years, and is off on 1 February on a sabbatical, working in wineries around the world. Before he flies off, he has these words of advice to customers when choosing wine in a ‘fine dining’ restaurant.

Keep reading

Oz Clarke Signed Wine Books

December 02 2009

We had a fabulous response to this ‘thank you’ email and offer on 25 November. (If you’d like to be sent offers like this, simply type in your first name and email address at the top of this website to go on the list.) Oz Clarke will be signing the books on Thursday 10th – see our Gift Ideas on bauduc.com to buy this or any other signed book now on offer. All books will be sent by courier from our UK office to arrive week ending Friday 18th December. If you have any questions, email gavin @ bauduc.com (remove the spaces in the address).

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Free tickets to a great Christmas Concert

November 18 2009

london-st-johns-smith-square_2We donate wine to The Children’s Trust for the reception following their famous Christmas concert in London each year. The charity has always kindly offered us some free tickets in return (as well as a full page slot in the programme), and as we can’t make the trip from Bordeaux, why not give them to customers?

The Children’s Trust Christmas Carol Concert will be held on 1st December in the magnificent Hall of St.John’s, Smith Square in Westminster. It should be a fine start to the Christmas season. More details of the concert here.

St.John’s, Smith Square is a few minutes walk from Westminster tube. The concert will start at 7.30pm and the post-concert party will run from 8.30pm to 10.30pm. Tickets are on sale at £50 each from The Children’s Trust website, but we have 4 pairs to give away now in a free prize draw.

Keep reading

Hail? What Hail?

October 09 2009

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As we come to the end of our harvest at Bauduc, we have hardly had a chance to reflect on an extraordinary vintage of triumphs and disasters. Everything looked great until the hailstorms in May. Then we lost a huge slice of the crop. Since the hail, the weather has been fantastic – so we were on the verge of a Perfect Storm: watching other vineyards enjoy a beautiful summer and early autumn, after ours had been badly hit. Salt on the wounds.

So how come we have made more white, more rosé and more red than last year?

Here’s how. It’s not a short or simple story, but this is France.

Keep reading