Category Archives: Ramblings and Rants

A Tribute To My Father, Five Years On

January 17 2012

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the funeral of my father, Jeremy Chavasse Alden Quinney. It was held in the Warwickshire town of Alcester, not far from the village of Sambourne where he’d lived all his life, a dozen miles from Stratford-upon-Avon.

I gave the address, or eulogy as it’s often called, and I’d written everything down in case the nerves got to me in front of the hundreds of people who had come to pay their respects. Near the start, I repeated a line from one of the readings: “For as long as we ourselves live, holding memories in common, a man lives.”

Bearing that in mind, I thought I’d publish my tribute to Dad for family and friends. Five years ago, some of his grandchildren were too young to really understand, and some hadn’t even been born. My stepmother Gel hosts a ‘Bluebell Day’ in his honour each Spring for close family – which we try to get to, with varying degrees of success. Anyway, here is the address I gave. Keep reading

If it hadn’t been for Steve Jobs…

October 06 2011

If it hadn’t been for Steve Jobs, I wouldn’t have read the sad news on my iPad this morning, or be typing on my Mac now. Our kids wouldn’t be playing games on my wife’s iPhone, and there wouldn’t be any iPods lying around.

Of course, we’re not the only family surrounded by all things Apple but if it hadn’t been for Steve Jobs, the company’s co-founder, we probably wouldn’t be living in this château.

It was the announcement of the original Apple Macintosh in 1984 that got me into the micro-computer industry (as it was called back then) which would eventually give me the chance to buy a vineyard. Before then, my CV consisted of two jobs in different fields, and two dismissals. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2011: A Year of Living Dangerously

September 30 2011

After two great Bordeaux vintages, 2011 has been a year of living dangerously. “It’s complicated,” Christian Moueix explained when I asked what he thought of the millésime, as his team picked in St-Emilion. If one of the most respected winemakers thinks it’s hard to generalise, it might be foolish for the rest of us to rush into snap judgments.

Let me try and explain what’s been going on in the Bordeaux vineyard this year, and forgive me for the amount of detail. My fascinating weather charts will follow later (updated for 2011 here).

Here’s a summary:

1. Early start, warm spring, then drought.

2. An up-and-down summer.

3. Early harvest, September sunshine.

4. When to pick: balancing ripeness with the risk of rot.

5. These magnificent men (and women) and their sorting machines.

6. Volume 5% up overall but yields vary from one estate to another.

7. Finally, a Tweet showing how the growing season compares.

Keep reading

The Bartons Buy Another Château

September 29 2011

This article appeared in the blog of Livex – the Fine Wine Exchange – and in the subscriber section called Inside Information on JancisRobinson.com.

Anthony Barton and his daughter, Lilian

It has been a few years since the Barton family of Château Langoa-Barton bought a château. Not since the 1820s, in fact, when Hugh Barton, having first acquired Langoa in 1821, purchased part of the Léoville estate in 1826 that would later become Château Léoville-Barton. Both Langoa and Léoville were included in the famous 1855 classification and, along with Château Mouton-Rothschild, are the only Châteaux since 1855 to remain under the same family ownership. Anthony Barton and his daughter Lilian run the two Saint-Julien estates today.

So when Lilian told me last Friday, on the final day of their harvest, that they had just purchased a property called Château Mauvesin in Moulis, I was quite surprised.

Keep reading

The End of the Harvest

September 22 2011

We’ve completed our harvest, which is a relief. More on the fun and games shortly: a judicious mixture of hand picking and machine harvesting.

We’re often asked how long we’ve been here, to which we usually reply ’10 years or so’.  Hang on. This was, in fact, our 13th harvest.

“Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself… You’ve got to ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?”

Hail Forces Early Start for Lafite as St-Estèphe Takes a Battering

September 05 2011

This article appeared on the Liv-ex Fine Wine Market blog and in ‘Inside Information’ on JancisRobinson.com.

Gavin Quinney reports from Bordeaux on an unscheduled start to the harvest for one of the world’s most famous estates, and the severe misfortune that fell on an illustrious neighbour.

Lafite's parcel in St-Estèphe, 3 Sept

‘It’s an early vintage, and not an easy one,’ said Charles Chevallier, the Director of Château Lafite-Rothschild, as he checked the Cabernet Sauvignon from their parcel in St-Estèphe in his new harvest reception area. He certainly never thought that he’d be bringing in this late-ripening variety exactly one week before the Médoc Marathon, when over 8,000 runners in fancy dress pass through the vineyards on the second Saturday of September. (In 2010, they started picking their Cabernet on 4th October.)

Unlike this coming Saturday, this is no laughing matter – even if the locals can’t resist a bit of black humour. “They can start the pruning at Cos d’Estournel, because there aren’t any leaves left on the vines,” was the gag made separately by two tractor drivers – one at Lafite, the other at Château Montrose to the north.  Neighbours, as well as nature, can be cruel. Keep reading

En Primeur Insights: The Château MD

August 22 2011

I recently interviewed a fellow ‘Brit in Bordeaux’ for the subscriber section of JancisRobinson.com. There’s a great deal of free content on the site but for any wine enthusiast, the ‘Purple Pages’ are well worth £69 a year. Jancis has kindly allowed me to publish the article here:

This is the second in a series of articles looking back at the 2010 Bordeaux En Primeur campaign.

Christian Seely

Englishman Christian Seely is the managing director of the AXA Millésimes group of estates, based at Château Pichon-Longueville in Pauillac. Besides this ‘Super Second’, Seely looks after Châteaux Pibran, also in Pauillac, Petit Village in Pomerol and Suduiraut in Sauternes, as well as estates in the Languedoc, Burgundy, Portugal and Hungary. He is also president of the Compagnie Médocaine, AXA’s Bordeaux négociant business.

Gavin Quinney, the owner of Château Bauduc (a recent Wine of the week), interviewed his compatriot about the 2010 campaign. Here is the transcript.

GQ: Why does the campaign have to take so-ooh long?

CS: Everybody agrees it should be quicker and start sooner – it is very annoying for customers. But each campaign has its own rhythm, and each property is waiting for the right moment. It shouldn’t be like that, of course. The timing though is key and it’s an incredibly important decision. There is an unofficial order, or hierarchy, and each property has their own idea of where they’re situated in that order. It’s their decision – and there are hundreds of individual decisions. Keep reading

Test Your Knowledge of French Wine Regions

July 28 2011

Wine Quiz

A warning: this brilliant online quiz can be quite addictive, more so if you’re into the geography of French wine regions. It’s in French but the language isn’t a barrier as you simply have to pin the tail on the donkey, as it were.

The trick, other than having an encyclopedic knowledge of French wine, is to be lightening fast to gain extra points. If you get hooked, the upside is that you’ll probably learn about the location of previously unheard-of (and some might say pointless) appellations. Added to which, you’ll see in the menu – top left – that there are questions on French cheeses, towns and rivers: a whole summer’s worth of trivia.

As is often the case, I found the link through Twitter via wine writer @jamiegoode although it seems (according to @hamishwm in his Bella Wines blog) that Jamie Hutchinson got there first on the forum on Tom Cannavan’s wine-pages.com. Whatever, my thanks to these guys for getting me hooked. Let me know how you get on.

Bauduc Rosé Cocktail – Refreshed & Updated

July 24 2011

Many old friends will be familiar with this Bauduc summer cocktail but you can add another optional ingredient: cranberry juice. This is a great drink that you can prepare in advance of a small party. Without any vodka, it’s pretty low in alcohol too.

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Bauduc Rose Cocktail

For 25 long drinks, pre-mix in a very large jug:

2 bottles of Château Bauduc Rosé 2010

50cl Cranberry juice

Lime cordial

A squeeze of fresh lime juice

Slug of vodka (optional)

Keep the mix cold and slice up 3 limes into wedges. When guests arrive, put ice into some tall tumblers and half-fill with the Rosé mixture. Then fill each glass completely with Canada Dry (you’ll need about 2 litres in all). Garnish with fresh mint leaves if possible, and squeeze a small lime wedge over each glass and drop it in. Keep reading

En Primeur: A Rare Show of Dissent (and Be Careful What You Tweet)

June 28 2011

One Bordeaux story that flew around the internet this month was a Bordeaux negociant’s public refusal to buy a top Chateau’s 2010 because the price was ‘ludicrous’. At that price the wine ‘deserved to tank in the market’, I tweeted. So guess who I sat next to at a black-tie dinner, given by the leading Châteaux, two days later?

Let me explain.

Keep reading