BOGOF: Buy One Get Oz Clarke Free
October 21st 2008, by Gavin
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All Hands on Deck
October 15th 2008, by Gavin
We’re bringing in all the merlot this week, so everyone’s helping out on the sorting table. Most of the time we’re removing any unwanted leaves or green bits, as we just want the fresh, ripe grapes going into the fermentation tanks.
So the children can cope just as well, as can Ronan, the former head sommelier from Gordon Ramsay’s, below.
Red Harvest in Full Swing
October 13th 2008, by Gavin
It’s the week of harvesting most of our Merlot for the reds. The quality is surprisingly high with minimal rot, and I suspect that 2008 will be a far better vintage than we might have hoped for just a few weeks ago. This is the view of the vineyard at 7.45am, and it’s quite beautiful, with the fairly narrow, 1.5 metre wide rows of merlot we planted in 2002 in the foreground, and the sauvignon blanc down the hill towards the woods.
Reducing Costs with Child Labour
October 10th 2008, by Gavin
Now that we’re entering a recession, we’ve hit on the idea of bringing in local children to carry out the menial tasks of picking the grapes. The schoolteachers in our local town have been only too happy to get their charges out into the fresh air, and best of all the kids are just the right height to be cutting off the bunches. And they’re free.
Red: The Good, The Bad and The Deadly
October 9th 2008, by Gavin
We’re still hanging in there, or rather the red grapes are. The forecast, although constantly changing, is in our favour. After some rain yesterday, more rain now and we’d have to harvest like crazy. Worse still, some of the grapes aren’t quite there yet and the days - and hours of sunlight - are getting shorter.
White Fermenting in Tank and Barrel
October 8th 2008, by Gavin
While we prepare for harvesting the majority of the red, we’re busy in the chai with vinifying the white wine. Now that all the grapes have been pressed and the juice has settled, we’ve kicked off the fermentation. The old semillon from Les Trois Hectares has gone into French oak barrels, whereas most of the sauvignon blanc is fermenting in a chilled stainless steel tank. We’ve also got some sauvignon blanc in barrels too.
Caterers in for the Weekend
October 7th 2008, by Gavin
We took a break from the harvest by entertaining a team from Charlton House, the caterers, who were staying with us for the weekend in the chateau and in the farmhouse. Dinner at the chateau on friday night was followed by a tour of Bordeaux vineyards on saturday, with a full-on evening out at La Tupina, Bordeaux’s best known restaurant. The wine list there is on the pricey side, and we wanted to drink wine from vineyards we’d visited, so we asked them politely if we could bring a bottle or two. They agreed and the bottle or two expanded to four magnums, but they didn’t seem to mind.
Reds: Hanging in There
October 3rd 2008, by Gavin
It has been clear from the start that this was going to be a late harvest. So the vineyard work that we carried out earlier in the season has been crucial and as a result, thankfully, our vines and red grapes look really healthy as they creep closer towards ripeness. The photo, taken yesterday, shows the leaves all green and the grapes free of rot. For the time being, at least.
October 1: First Red Grapes - for Rosé
October 2nd 2008, by Gavin
Not a single red grape harvested in September at Bauduc. Not one - that must be the first time ever. Then again, there are merlot grapes on the vine up the road at Pétrus in Pomerol, so it’s not that unusual in the circumstances. Our merlot usually ripens a week or so after the plateau of Pomerol. This gives me a quick insight - pop up to Pomerol and whatever the top guys are doing, mark next week’s diary accordingly.
This year, we’ve decided to make a cracking rosé. Not that we have deliberately set out to make un vin rosé ordinaire in the past, it’s just that we haven’t focused enough on the style and that’s been reflected in the results.
Making White: Don’t Try This at Home
October 1st 2008, by Gavin
I’m glad the Inspecteur du Travail wasn’t here yesterday morning. I’m not sure he would have appreciated the children being around so much dangerous kit.
We have now finished harvesting the white. How we make it is pretty straightforward but there’s lots to be done. Most of the work has taken place in the vineyard, including cutting out, by hand, any bunches that are tainted by rot, but attention to detail is needed now at every stage.