September is harvest month for us, so unsurprisingly it’s been a busy one. Please forgive this lengthy journal of pictures, which is really designed for you to scroll through when you have the time and, indeed, the inclination.
Equally, after completing 25 growing seasons at Bauduc, we’ve nearly reached the stage where it might act as a useful aide memoir.
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A quarter of a century. Blimey.
It’s the end of the summer holidays, our twentysomething children have left this week and we made the decision yesterday, Friday, to start the harvest this coming Monday.
And if there’s one thing you shouldn’t do when you have an end-of-month newsletter to write it’s to start looking through boxes and boxes of old photos. (Note to self: digitise all the old photos, and write that bloody memoir.)
Anyway, it’s all go. We’ve been lucky enough to have had several weeks of glorious weather until the rain came on Thursday. It’s not an early vintage, by the way, it’s just that we need to pick the white grapes for our sparkling Crémant while they still have lots of crisp acidity and aren’t too high in sugar.
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We hope you’re enjoying a fine summer.
It’s been a scorcher in south west France this week. On Monday, we came on the train down to Spain on the hottest day of the year so far at home. Our three-night stopover in Hondarribia, not far from San Sebastian and on the border with France, is our brief summer holiday away from Bauduc, and we return tomorrow. Let’s hope August is sunny, indeed, but not so hot – the poor vines can’t cope with the sort of temperatures around Bordeaux below for long.
Meanwhile, here’s a photo journal of some of the things that happened in July. Of particular interest, if your summer barbecue is in use, is how we cook our beef these days (about half way through this missive).
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“So today, we are taking advantage of leaving the EU to announce the most radical simplification of alcohol duties for over 140 years.” Rishi Sunak’s Budget speech as Chancellor, October 2021.
Well, judging by his duty bands for 1 February 2025, that’s far from a ‘simplification’ and most wine drinkers in the UK wouldn’t say it’s ‘taking advantage of leaving the EU’.
Our newsletter at the end of June last year was ‘A guide to UK duty hikes on wine’ and below is an update. A 53p increase in duty per bottle for most wine (44p plus VAT) to £2.67 plus VAT last August was bad enough, but there’s trouble ahead.
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May is always a crazy month and this year’s no different. The weather has been less than clement of late, with rather a lot of rain, and we need the sun now before the all-important flowering in June. The vines are in fine shape though and the forecast for the next week looks pretty good, so we live in hope as always.
Here’s what’s included below by way of a photo journal:
For this month’s missive we’re turning our attention to our great friend Tom Gilbey and his fantastic achievement of running the London Marathon while blind tasting and guessing 25 different wines en route, with a brief pause to do so every mile.
What’s more, his efforts have gone viral with over 4 million views on Tiktok alone. If Instagram’s more your thing, do follow @tomgilbeywine and have a look at his pinned marathon video for more. Tom’s exploits have been all over the media, unsurprisingly – search Tom Gilbey wine marathon. (Photo credit: Broni Llloyd-Edwards.)
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My annual Bordeaux vintage report is published on JancisRobinson’s fine wine website and on Liv-ex – the fine wine marketplace. To find previous ones, see ‘Bordeaux reports’ in the menu above.
With the world of fine wine descending on Bordeaux to taste the latest vintage in the second half of April, here’s my report on how the weather in 2023 shaped the wines and the size of the crop.
It should help to serve as a backdrop as to why the wines taste the way they do – even at this early stage for the most sought-after reds – and to put 2023 into context by comparing the conditions with previous years.
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Good Friday is one of those strange days when it’s a day off in the UK but not a holiday in France – like Boxing Day in fact. A sensible compromise might be for us to take half a day off.
Angela is breathing a sigh of relief because we were intending to send out my ‘Bordeaux 2023 weather and crop report’ as our end-of-month newsletter. However, we’ve decided not to tarnish everyone’s Easter and to hold off before sending it out in a couple of weeks. That will also give some time for Jancis Robinson to check up on the numerous yet thrilling graphs and tables before she publishes the report on her leading wine site and for Liv-ex – the fine wine exchange – to do likewise.
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We’re delighted to report that Château Bauduc has been chosen as the Official Wine of the Tour for ‘An Evening with Rick Stein’ at 15 venues across the UK in the second half of March.
The theatres each have a capacity of 1,200 to 1,500 guests and tickets are selling well, with quite a few set to sell out. Do try and book as it should be fun.
Rick will have a glass of Bauduc and the bottle with him on stage – either the Sauvignon Blanc 2022 or our Rosé 2022 with his signature labels – and at some point in proceedings he’ll talk about his long-term friendship with us.
We haven’t had to cough up for this or for Rick to say nice things about us – it’s just that we’ve been working together for years. More on all that, below.
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Our 2023 whites and rosés have just been blended in the winery and they’ll be bottled at the end of February. They won’t be released until the spring and we still have a few cases left of the current vintages to see us through until then.
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