We’re lucky to live here in so many ways but the sight and the sound this week of the migrating grues*, or cranes, flying up from the south is a glorious reminder that winter is almost behind us and that spring awaits.
It signals too that we need to crack on with the last of the pruning – as Nelly’s doing, above, working beyond the 6pm curfew here – and the pulling out of last year’s branches, in readiness for the growing season ahead.
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This article was also published on JancisRobinson.com and by Liv-ex.
Here is my detailed report on the amount of wine produced by the whole of Bordeaux in 2020. Each year I pull together the latest figures after they are released in February, and update my tables, charts and maps before the ‘en primeur’ tastings of the new vintage in the spring.
Regular readers will be delighted that I’ve added some new, thrilling graphics for 2021, so this deep-dive analysis has now sunk even lower: if the wines of Bordeaux and/or data crunching aren’t really your thing, you may want to scroll swiftly along.
This review of how much wine was made, and where, should be seen as a follow-up to my detailed 2020 harvest and weather report from last October, published soon after the crop came in. The weather and growing conditions, naturally enough, go hand in hand with the volume and quality of wine produced. “There’ll be some terrific wines from 2020,” I wrote. “Yields for many estates are lower, with less juice due to heat and drought, but the quality is high – albeit variable.”
I also put together a photo journal of the red harvest in 2020. They’ve been harvesting grapes like this at Château Lafite Rothschild – in this case, Merlot – for many years but there are some clues that date certain images.
Bordeaux produced 440 million litres of wine in 2020, the equivalent of 587 million bottles. This was around 10% less than 2019 and 2018 (486ml and 499ml respectively), which were both close to the 10-year average.
We thought you’d enjoy a photo journal of our new vintages being bottled, and the start of the trip for some UK-bound stock – in the nick of time.
We’ll no doubt be keeping a beady eye on the Calais-Dover route as things develop.
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Dear John
And now for some good news. We’ll be releasing the new vintages of our whites, reds, sparkling and rosé on Friday 5th February, with keen prices and UK delivery within a few working days from our London warehouse.
These include our 2020 Sauvignon Blanc, 2020 Les Trois Hectares blanc and our 2020 Rosé. All fresh off the bottling line at the château but now thoroughly rested and ready to roll. Bottled last summer and fit to burst out of the blocks as well are our red Bordeaux Supérieur and Les Trois Hectares rouge 2018. Young and bright, and both delicious already – really. Also from 2018, our bubbly Crémant de Bordeaux.
We’ll let you know how we escaped the shackles of the post-Brexit channel crossing shortly, even if it is only a brief reprieve.
For those looking for availability outside the UK, do get in touch
All the best
Gavin and Angela
A final photo journal of the year, and this time of the vineyard at Bauduc over the past 12 months. The picture above, with several small deer running over frosty ground towards a parcel of Sauvignon Blanc, was taken on Boxing day.
A new year resolution is to keep these posts going (I email them out to subscribers, below), and to put more images on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter on both @GavinQuinney and @ChateauBauduc. More than likely with the same hashtags that I’ve used before: #yearinthevineyard #margauxterrier #paviethedog and #goosebauduc. The latter is the cat.
All the best for 2021.
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What a year it’s been, and we’re not finished yet.
Here at Chateau Fawlty we’ve had a busy month in the vineyard and on the winemaking side, and our ever faithful customers have kept us on our toes.
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This week’s photo journal is part Throwback Thursday, part Black Friday offer.
We sold out of our popular 2014 red in the UK over a year ago, though we still had some stock in our Calais depot. It may not surprise you that collections from there have been a little slow in 2020.
So we’ve shipped the last of the 2014 Merlot Cabernet over to London City Bond, paying UK duty in the process, and are keeping it to the same price as its launch price in early 2016, while stocks last.
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I’ve sent out a weekly photo journal since the start of our harvest in late August, with almost all of them having the same caveat: ‘sorry, we don’t sell these wines, or not today.’
So here is something rather original – a story with some pictures of another vineyard, the (mature) produce of which we can deliver (in the UK) next week.
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In last week’s photo journal, there were so many images of the châteaux and landscapes of Saint-Émilion there was no room for the neighbouring vineyards of Pomerol.
Today was a national holiday in France so I got up early and put this album together for our regular Wednesday missive. Pomerol is a fascinating appellation in so many ways, if only because – as far as the average wine drinker might be concerned – the price of the wines from the vineyards below varies between £30 and £3,000 ex-tax a bottle for the same vintage.
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We had so many kind comments about our photo journal of the famous châteaux of the Médoc last week, we thought it only fair to continue the story closer to home, in Saint-Émilion.
You may recall that a good friend in London is writing a book on Bordeaux and had despatched his photographer colleague Joakim to take some pictures of the vineyards.
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