A Wine Weekend in the Sun
June 30th 2008, by Gavin
Another weekend with one wine event after another. On friday evening, after a snoop around the vineyards of Péssac-Léognan, I popped into Bordeaux to take a look at ‘Bordeaux Fête Le Vin’. It was heaving with visitors, mostly enthusiastic amateurs, and it doesn’t surprise me that some 450,000 are reported to have attended this mammoth wine tasting, spread over four sunny days and warm nights from thursday to sunday. The event was staged along the recently restored quays along the river Garonne, in the heart of the city and was, from what I could see, a big success.
Some friends who came for our Bauduc Bondholder dinner on saturday night spent more time at the Fête on friday than
I did, and they really enjoyed it. It cost them all of 16 euros for two, including a tasting glass each and more than enough vouchers to enjoy plenty of wine from different stands.
Here’s Dan (below) proudly holding his keepsake - a handy carry case, complete with the glass inside and a natty shoulder strap.
Our Bondholder dinner on saturday was a somewhat smaller event, which was lucky because our local chef pulled out at the last minute. We managed to cobble something together in time, principally by roping Dan and Zella into helping us out in the kitchen in return for a bed for the night. The dinner was memorable for the lovely, balmy evening, our Bauduc rosé cocktail beforehand and some interesting discourse between an academic, a surgeon, a shipping baron and the UK marketing director for Google. The latter came up with the best suggestion when we discussed what to buy godchildren and grandchildren as presents: domaine names (fullname.coms, not estates in Burgundy) and fine wine for laying down. Later on, Hugh the surgeon talked about the importance of the Miami Breast Conference, but after too much Trois Hectares 05 red we couldn’t take him too seriously.
Frost Damage but No Hail, Please
June 25th 2008, by Gavin
Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the night we were badly hit by hail. The evening of 24th June, 2003 lives long in the memory. After a period of steamy hot weather, a hail storm swept through part of the region, starting in the Graves to the south west of us and petering out beyond St-Emilion to the east. Hail on its own can be a bruiser but it’s the combination of hail and gail force winds that inflicts serious damage. We lost half the crop in just a few minutes, and with it half our income for the year. Some of our neighbours’ vines were wiped out, whereas Esme Johnstone’s Château de Sours, just five miles away, remained untouched.
Ironically, we had cancelled our hail insurance policy the year before as the premium had rocketed, and we believed a local pundit who claimed that the geography and shape of the hillsides of Bauduc would force the winds around the estate and that we were unlikely to be hit in just such an event. This turned out, of course, to be complete tosh.
La Gazette in La Poste
June 19th 2008, by Gavin
We hosted a Bondholder dinner here at the château on saturday night, and a family of Bondholders (that is, one with two generations of Bondholders) rented the farmhouse for the week. Unfortunately, they had to leave earlier than planned but were at pains to point out that it had nothing to do with our cooking. It was a pity, because the garden is glorious when the sun is shining, and the heated pool looks seriously inviting.
But, as it was now free, we put the house to good use. This is the week of sending out the Gazette, at long last, so the small task of stuffing nearly 4000 envelopes was carried out here. I think this may have to be the last time of sending out a personalised covering letter, now that Angela refuses to sign any letters, as she has a recurring problem with her shoulder and shows symptons of repetitive stress syndrome. As a result, the signing count was Angela 22, me 3867. Of course, we should use automated signatures, but I have an aversion to them.
Download La Gazette No. 21 Summer 2008 as pdf (1.8mb)
Barton 2001-2008
June 19th 2008, by Gavin
Thank you to everyone for the messages of support following the tragic death of our great little dog, Barton. For those friends and visitors to Bauduc who haven’t seen the news in our Gazette in the post, we are sorry to report that he was killed on 18 May.
For the first time ever, a family brought a dog with them to stay in the farmhouse and we had made it clear that we had two (harmless) dogs. Their dog, an obese dalmatian which had apparently come from a refuge, attacked and mortally wounded Barton as soon as they let it out of the house by mistake. He died in Angela’s arms as we drove him to the vet.
It still seems incredible to us that a dog lover could bring a dog, knowing it was a danger to other dogs, all the way from Rutland to Bordeaux by car, only for it to savage their hosts’ much-loved pet. They had barely unpacked before they left, mortified, just as we were burying the little chap. Added to which, we haven’t heard a word from them since. No flowers, no note, no email.
New AOC Rules: Forgive me for yawning
June 17th 2008, by Gavin
There are significant changes afoot with new rules surrounding the Appellation Contrôlée system. From the 1st July it’s all change: previous controls about guaranteeing the authenticity of a wine from Bordeaux are being replaced by, er, a brand new set of controls. The changes are for the good, just like stopping drink-driving is for the good, but we’ll have to wait and see just how well the whole scheme is implemented and policed.
I was invited to what I thought was going to be a routine meeting this afternoon, between a few fellow vignerons and a Directeur from the Syndicat de Bordeaux. I realised when I walked in to the Salle André Lurton in Grézillac that the session might go on for a bit longer than I had anticipated, as there were 200 people in the room and more arriving. There was a choice of standing room only at the back, or a seat in the front row, and I realised my mistake in opting for the latter when the main presenter gave everyone a peep at just how many Powerpoint slides he was about to share with us all as he set up his laptop with the overhead projector. There was to be no escape.
New Bauduc Website
June 17th 2008, by Gavin
We are delighted to launch our brand new Château Bauduc website at www.bauduc.com this week, which can be opened by clicking the big red button at the top of this page. The site has been created mainly with our UK customers in mind, with a comprehensive online ordering system (Buy Wine) a key feature.
We have had an online system in place for the past five years on our old site, but we felt that we needed to offer something a little more sophisticated.
I’d really like to know your thoughts on the site - feel free to comment below or contact me.
The next time I hatch a cunning marketing plan, it might just be smarter not to try and design and write everything at the same time, at a time when there is so much to be done in the vineyard: new website, new blog, new Gazette newsletter, new Bauduc Bond offer, and so on. The brain’s gone slightly mushy.
Bauduc in The Observer: Buy Direct for Value
June 16th 2008, by Gavin
Our thanks to Patrick Collinson of The Observer for his kind recommendation on how to save money by buying direct from a vineyard online, or rather Bauduc. Does anyone know of any other overseas vineyards
that sell direct to people at home in the UK? Of course, you could order wine from a foreign vineyard and have it sent over, at some cost, and pay duty and VAT as it comes through Customs (that’s the law, folks). But does anyone do that, and do you get caught for the duty?
A weekend wine tour of Bordeaux
June 10th 2008, by Gavin
We’ve just spent a great weekend with some friends from Norfolk who rented our farmhouse. Dinner at the château on friday evening - local Agneau de Pauillac served with, er, Pauillac - was followed by two leisurely days on the Right and the Left Banks of Bordeaux.
On Saturday, Otto Rettenmaier showed us around his chai (winery) and his vineyard at Chåteau La Tour Figeac, right next door to Cheval Blanc in St-Emilion on the border with Pomerol. La Tour Figeac is one of the many up-and-coming estates in Saint Emilion making terrific wine at a fair price, and Otto is a very genial host. After a light lunch in the old town, and an opportunity in a restaurant to sniff what a ‘corked’ wine smells like, we drove around some top spots - Pavie, Ausone and so on - and then trod some of the hallowed ground around the plateau of Pomerol. The most eye-opening part is the 100-fold current price difference of wines from the 2005 vintage, between one vineyard and its next door neighbour - Pétrus and Gazin in Pomerol, with almost as much of a gap between Ausone 2005 and Belair 2005 on the hillside above St-Emilion.
Article from Bauduc Gazette in Guardian
June 9th 2008, by Gavin
I was talking to a customer who works at the Guardian about an article I was writing for La Gazette - our printed newsletter that’s sent out via La Poste - and this article appeared in the paper before the Gazette had even landed on the doormats of our customers.
In the Gazette article I discuss how the high rate of UK Duty has an impact on cheap house wines in restaurants - the duty costs more than the wine itself. Have you ever wondered why UK restaurants charge at least £14 for a bottle of wine now? The full Gazette article - Darling goes over the top - is included in this blog.
Darling Goes over the Top
June 7th 2008, by Gavin
By our man in the trenches
Times are tough for the UK wine trade. The pound has slumped against the euro, the cost of wine at source and fuel prices have shot up, and consumers face the credit crunch.
If that wasn’t enough, the anti-alcohol lobby is winning the media battle, with middle-class binge-drinkers being portrayed as a drain on the nation’s resources. So the same government that brought in 24-hour drinking (for health reasons?) softened the way for the assault on responsible wine lovers.
Britain now boasts the highest rate of duty on wine in Europe. The Chancellor of the Exchequer slapped a record 14p on a bottle of wine in the Spring budget and pledged to increase duty above the rate of inflation over the next four years.
Duty on a bottle of wine is now nearly £1.50, plus VAT on the duty as well as the wine, while there is no duty at all in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria and Germany, while France fleeces its citoyens for all of 2p a bottle. And yet we manage to remain sober - well, most of the time.
Captain Darling even claimed that wine drinkers are better off under this Government: ”Alchohol has become more affordable. In 1997, the average bottle of wine bought in a supermarket was £4.45 in today’s prices. If you go into a supermarket today, the average bottle of wine will cost about £4.00.”
Perhaps, but what he didn’t say was that the government has trousered 37p more per bottle in duty in that time, before the new rate came into being. Producers have been forced to cut costs, and two thirds of wine sold in Britain today is on ’special offer’.
50% tax on an average bottle
On a £4.20 bottle on sale in the UK, which is the average price paid for a bottle of wine, £2.10 goes on duty and VAT, then there’s shipping, storage and distribution, plus the agent and the retailer’s margin. After the bottle, cork, capsule, label and packaging (we spend 50p on all these) that leaves rod all for the wine inside the bottle.