We’re half way through the year already. Crikey. And half way through the growing season in the vineyard too, though we never know what could be just around the corner.
There were hail storms at the start of last week that ravaged some (really unlucky) vineyards in Bordeaux. Look out for what is effectively Part II of our June review to follow in the next day or so – ‘the Bordeaux hail trail’.
Before that, here’s a photo journal of a few of the things that have been happening at Bauduc this month.
A successful, early flowering in the vineyard is almost a cause for celebration in itself. We’ve had lovely weather at Bauduc, with the only fly in the ointment being a potential drought. (As you know, farmers are rarely happy.)
Bordeaux welcomed professionals from the world of fine wine – for the first time in three years – for the spring tastings of the latest vintage at the end of April. As the ‘en primeur’ tastings of young samples by critics, commentators and merchants confirmed, 2021 is a comparatively weaker and uneven vintage for reds, even if very good for the whites (which are made in much smaller volumes).
Here’s my report of how the weather during the Bordeaux growing season left a fairly indelible mark on the style of the wines and the volumes produced.
There are far more important things happening in the world, of course, but what a mad month it has been at Château Fawlty.
Our opening offer for our new vintages should have been sent out earlier this month, before we hit a major stumbling block. Not Brexit, not Covid… but IT. More on that below but suffice to say that the website is in full working order with a foxy new checkout process.
Our newly bottled wines are currently on the road, or are about to be, and a mad March offer will be going out for the UK as soon as the stock is booked into our London warehouse. (For elsewhere, do get in touch.)
In the meantime, here is our monthly photo journal. We’ve grandly called it ‘A Winter’s Tale’ because it actually covers January too, as last month’s missive was taken up by our rant against HM Treasury’s impending duty doom. Many thanks to everyone who wrote to their MP and for letting us know how it went. More on this anon.
Replies to the Government’s consultation document on its new alcohol duty system have to be in by 11.45pm on 30 January 2022.
So our January news review comes a little earlier than usual to give you the thrilling opportunity to email your MP before the deadline, should you wish. We have felt pretty strongly about unreasonable levels of wine duty in the UK in the past but these current proposals have really sent us into a spin, along with many others in the wine trade.
Without beating about the bush, here’s a draft of what you might want to write to your MP. (Links to reach your MP below.) Update 26 Jan – we have slightly cut down the suggested letter from the email we sent here to the one below.Don’t forget to include your address to show you live in the MP’s constituency.
This explains where we’re coming from, but do copy and paste and edit accordingly. Below this explanatory letter is a stash of facts, figures and fancy graphics which you may be interested in, or can at least refer to if you want to know more.
Our final photo-journal of the year is a glance at the vineyard, namely the same image snapped over several months. Below that are some highlights which are taken mostly from the previous 11 photo-journals of 2021.
In our recent photo journals about the harvest this autumn, we included just a couple of pictures of other Bordeaux estates. We covered the 2021 white harvest at Bauduc, and separately the red and rosé harvest one here in case you missed them. As it’s still no simple matter to travel, we thought we’d bring you some images of what went on in other vineyards. Even if you have little interest in wine production, at least it makes a change from the news in general.
Speaking of which, you may have read in the press that there’s going to be a shortage of wine in the UK this Christmas. There are some serious obstacles, that’s true, but for now rest assured that we do have stock in London, ready and waiting should you need it. Take a look at ‘All wines’ for our stuff, including mixed cases, and ‘Other châteaux’ for those from friends and colleagues.
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.
First the good news from Rishi Sunak’s ‘new age of optimism‘ Budget. The higher UK duty rate on sparkling wine will be removed and the tax rate will be the same for sparkling and still wines from February 2023. Instead it will be based on the level of alcohol, with the current duty rate of £2.23 plus VAT applying for wines of 11.5% vol. Duty is frozen for the moment but don’t be fooled by this.
While staying with family in Worcestershire, here’s a snapshot (above) of what the new duty rates will look like for still wines from Feb ’23 if the proposals go ahead. There are two bottles of Bauduc and four others I bought from Waitrose – in all, three whites and three reds.
The German Riesling at 12% alc/vol will cost 12p more in tax, the 13% Bauduc Sauvignon 35p more, while our Bordeaux red, the French Cabernet Franc red from Saumur, and the South African Chardonnay, a whopping 47p a bottle more (13.5%). The Argentinian Malbec at 14.5% will cost an extra 70p in duty.
