September is usually quite full-on, what with the start of the harvest and a new school year, but the 2017 edition has been bonkers. Not only have we completed the white harvest – which would normally be the case – but, as with the rest of Bordeaux this year, the reds are almost all in too. We’ve also hosted so many events at Bauduc we’ve had to recruit a live-in chef – what we’d have done without Elly, Lord knows. Keep reading
Category Archives: In Pictures
Bottling White and Rosé – in pictures
February 24 2017
February is bottling month at Château Bauduc for the previous vintage’s whites and rosé. It’s the culmination of 16 months’ work when you take into account the pruning of the vines the winter before. It’s yet another time when we’re nervous about the weather – in previous years the machine has frozen up – but we were lucky this time. We bottled our 2016 Sauvignon Blanc, Les Trois Hectares Blanc and our Rosé. Keep reading
Red harvest at Bauduc by hand – in pictures
October 26 2016
The harvest was completed at Bauduc last Friday, 21st October. We picked the remaining block of Cabernet Sauvignon by hand, just as we did when Rick Stein came to film the opening episode of his Long Weekends series for the BBC a year ago. (Where does the time go?)
It’s been a long harvest in 2016 and strange to think that the first rows we picked – also by hand – were the 10-year old Semillon vines for our sparkling cremant in the next door field as far back as the 12th September. (Funny, that seems like an age ago.) Keep reading
Red harvest at Bauduc by machine – in pictures
October 20 2016
We harvested the Merlots, mostly by machine, during the week of 10th October. The grapes looked terrific and one advantage of bringing them in cold by machine at the crack of dawn, is putting them into a chilled stainless steel tank for a cold soak for a few days before starting the fermentation.
Some of the great chateaux we most admire, such as l’Evangile in Pomerol, Smith Haut Lafitte in Pessac-Leognan and Malescot St-Exupery in Margaux, also like to do a pre-fermentation ’cold maceration’. Their pickers snip the bunches into crates during the day and the winery staff drive the pallets of crates into a chiller room, usually overnight, before de-stemming and sorting the bunches and transferring the grapes – cold – into tanks the following day. Keep reading
Quinneys picking – in pictures
October 13 2016
We picked all our Merlot this week, so we’ve just got our Cabernet to go and that’ll be that. More on the red harvest at Bauduc in next week’s missive, suffice to say that we’ve been lucky with the weather. It’s been dry and sunny until yesterday afternoon, which is good for bringing in the grapes and, of course, for taking photos. It’s also unusual to have all the children at home at this time of year, so it’s only fair that we put together a gratuitous family album. Keep reading
Bordeaux 2016 – the harvest in Pomerol, in pictures
October 07 2016
This week has been dry and sunny, so we’ve decided to hold off harvesting the reds at Bauduc for the moment. We had a heavy dollop of rain last Friday night – straight after we’d sent out an upbeat monthly review – so an excellent September came to an abrupt end. Thankfully though, the rain was just a one-off and since then we’ve had fresh mornings and glorious days. We therefore thought we’d leave that downpour to freshen things up in the vineyard, and hang on for what they call optimum ripeness.
We also have a useful early warning system nearby, thanks to the earlier maturing vineyards of Pomerol some 25 minutes up the road near Libourne, where Tom goes to school. Our Merlot usually ripens 8-10 days later than at the top chateaux on the plateau of Pomerol so, after dropping Tom at school, it makes good sense – in the name of research, of course – to study the harvest taking place on one of the finest patches of dirt in the world. Keep reading
Rosé at dawn – in pictures
September 27 2016
We’ve been harvesting every morning for six days in the trot, starting at a ridiculously early time before the sun comes up. The days have been dry and sunny since a heavy downpour in the middle of the month. Sandwiched in between the Sauvignon and the Semillon since then, we harvested some Merlot for our rosé at sparrow’s fart last Sunday.
Now you see them… high yields on Merlot are great for rosé – lower sugar (and therefore alcohol) and fresh acidity. #bdx16 #bordeauxwines pic.twitter.com/YSPrxHTQ1q
— Gavin Quinney (@GavinQuinney) September 25, 2016
We choose to harvest the bunches from this high yielding block earlier than we would do for red, as the acidity needs to be racier and we want less sugar – and therefore alcohol. Keep reading
Chateau Bauduc – harvesting in the dark, with pics
September 23 2016
This is an email we sent to everyone on our mailing list – do sign up for our missives in the box above on a computer, or below on a mobile.
Another weekly update on what’s happening at Bauduc doesn’t really rank up there with Bake Off and Brangelina but we thought we’d keep you up to date with our harvest news and the latest photo album.
After last week’s hand picking, this was ’harvesting in the dark’ week. There are a few reasons for picking Sauvignon Blanc by machine before dawn. Firstly, the grapes and the juice come in nice and chilly, with less risk of oxidation. Secondly, the other chateaux who hire our man Guy and his machines rarely start before 8am, so we can usually make up our minds about what to harvest at the last minute. (Guy, you see, is from the Charente and he’s that rare sort of Frenchman who wants to bill for as many hours as possible.) Keep reading
Chateau Bauduc – the start of the harvest, by hand
September 16 2016
Bauduc harvest 2016 – hand picking Sémillon for the sparkling Crémant de Bordeaux
I thought I’d bring you up to date with how the harvest is progressing, week by week, and to send you the latest links to our photo galleries – on Bauduc.com, here on my blog and on Facebook, no less. It is also means that I have yet another excuse (’le marketing’) to avoid cleaning the press. Keep reading
Sparkling Bauduc – the story in pictures
May 28 2016
We released our first sparkling wine from Chateau Bauduc this week. It’s available direct from us for delivery in the UK. Here’s the story of the wine in pictures, from the creation of the vineyard to the wine in bottle. They’re the same images that you can find in the Photo Albums on the Bauduc website and Bauduc Facebook page too – I’m just trying to see what works.
Tap, touch or click on a photo to enlarge it and for a description, then use the < arrows > to scroll through. Keep reading