A Visit to a Bordeaux Vineyard  ~  Time well spent with Gavin & Angela Quinney
 

 We have been lucky enough to be on Gavin and Angela's mailing list for many years ~ enjoying reports and updates
on the experiences, travails, and successes of a producer of Bordeaux wines and his neighbors.  Gavin has kindly
permitted FRANCE On Your Own to reprint excerpts from some of the more recent newsletters and use a few of
his marvelous photographs so our readers can enjoy them as well.  Of course, if you are in one
of the countries Château Bauduc wines can be bought (or shipped to), do consider trying them. 
The Quinney's produce upmarket house wines for Gordon Ramsay's 3-star Chelsea (London) restaurant
 as well as for chef Rick Stein and the Hotel du Vin restaurants.

Gavin's web site begins with this introduction which we are including as a way of introducing the family to you:

"We fell for this lovely estate, some 15 miles from the city of Bordeaux, and moved here from London in 1999.
The Château and winery are surrounded by almost 200 acres of woods, fields and, of course, the vineyards.
A thousand rows of vines cover a third of the land, and here we grow Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon for our dry
white and sparkling wines, along with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc for our deep reds and pale rosé.
There's also a charming four-bedroomed farmhouse, with its own pool and garden, which we let out
by the week from April to October.  It's a lovely place to relax and enjoy this wonderful region."

In May of this year we had a glimpse of the effect of the coronavirus on a vintner in France.  Gavin wrote, "The world might have been in lockdown since mid-March but the vines have been quicker than ever out of the blocks since then.  Well, not quite ever - since 2011 to be precise.  2020 is certainly all set up to be an early vintage, much like 2011 when we started picking the Sauvignon Blanc in late August (mid-September for dry whites would be the norm).  There is along way to go, of course, but the flowering has been breaking out here in lovely sunshine for the second half of May."

"It's been all hands on deck here, as 24,000 cases of six (all Bauduc) have left the property in the last three months. One approach to social distancing in the warehouse - especially when making up mixed cases - is for Dad and Tom, Mum and Sophie and assistant winemaker Nelly and her daughter Lucie to work in pairs.

"Now in case you think your order might get lost in the crowd, it is far more effective to order on our web site these days than by phone or email to Angela or Gavin. That's because Georgie, our eldest and living in east London, has been steadfastly placing online orders with our warehouse and delivery partner, London City Bond, and they too have been terrific.

"As a schoolteacher at a state school, Georgie may have to go back to her real work soon, so Amelia, daughter number three (19, on leave here from McGill University) is on standby. 

"Meanwhile, sales from our Calais warehouse are zero, cellar door sales are rare, sales to restaurants are zero of course, and most of our farmhouse bookings have been canceled or been pushed on a year."

                                                                              May in the vineyard



Back in February, Gavin reminded us just how much knowledge he has ~ we can see that winemaking is not a 'hobby' but an avocation requiring skill and an understanding of the weather to the terroir and everything in between.  He wrote:

"It's almost two decades since our wines were first served by the glass at Gordon Ramsay's and Rick Stein's, and we say as much on our new label. So it's only right that we should take the new vintages for the annual check-up in England.

"As a follow up to my 'Bordeaux 2019 weather and harvest report' last autumn, here's an update of the production statistics. These somewhat nerdy articles, shamelessly illustrated with detailed graphs and tables, serve as a backdrop to the 'en primeur' tastings which take place in late March and early April. (Each spring, fine wine merchants and critics descend on the region from around the world to sample the latest vintage 'from barrel' - all being well.)

"The primeurs or futures campaign involves a tiny fraction of the overall production, however, so it can also be useful to understand the bigger picture of Bordeaux - or, indeed, the map. Few people realise just how much wine is made here, so below I show where 650 million bottles in 2019, or their equivalent, are sourced from.

Bordeaux 2019 output compared to recent years

 

"I spend too much time looking at how the vines are coping each season and, as I reckoned in my report at the end of the harvest, the "overall 2019 volume will probably be a little less than the 10-year average of 508 million litres (2009-2018)... not far off 2018, up on 2017, down on 2016."

Gavin provides a lot of really interesting information, especially for lovers of Bordeaux wines, about the weather, the vintages and how they compare with each other. 

"Production in 2019 was 486.3 million litres, just short of the 2018 figure of 498.6 litres - 500 million when rounded up.  Älthough 2019 is close to the average, the last decade ha seen too low crops in 2013 and 2017 and the 1-year average prior to that was 566 million litres, albeit it a slightly larger vineyard area.  The average for that decade was 118,000 hectares / 291,600 acres, versus 113,000 hectares in the last ten years."

                                    And, of course, there's the weather!

We remember Gavin's news in 2018 about hailstorms that struck Bordeaux.  He wrote:

"Many thanks for all the concerned messages. We’re fine thanks, as on this occasion the hailstorms passed us by. To the north of us, primarily in Bourg and Blaye, and the southern Haut-Médoc, they were not so lucky, and we send our best wishes to our fellow viticulteurs whose vineyards have been damaged.

"The hailstorm struck on Saturday morning, 26 May, and we had an early warning from friends in the city of Bordeaux with texts and tweets, mostly accompanied by images and videos of hailstones and flooded streets. The hailstorm then moved up towards the Gironde estuary, damaging vines on the left bank around Macau and at the southern end of the Haut-Médoc, before causing huge damage to vineyards on the other side of the river in the picturesque, hilly areas of Bourg and Blaye. The storm then shifted north to Cognac.

"I can’t remember such a forceful deluge of hail hitting the city of Bordeaux before, at least not this century, so the immediate flurry of videos on social media probably spurred the swift news coverage from traditional outlets. And, as ever, most headlines about hail carry all the usual hyperbole - ‘destroy’ (Mail), ‘devastate’ (Telegraph), ‘ravage’ (Reuters) and, my favourite from the Times,  ‘bankruptcy’.

"Unlike the frost in April 2017, which was widespread across the whole region, hailstorms travel in what the locals call a ‘couloir’, or corridor. The damage is therefore localised, with terrible impact on some vineyards, while neighbouring vines can be untouched. It’s a case of the unlucky few - and phew for everyone else."

We suggest that you visit Château Bauduc's web site to see photos of the family, the
 the vineyard, all those luscious grapes, the vendange and the château itself.
While there, you can subscribe to Gavin's monthly newsletter or reserve a few days at their farmhouse.

 

SPONSORING THIS ISSUE

DOMAINE FOR SALE   

If you are considering moving to a part of France that is rich in history and natural beauty,
then this former wine domaine (now a thriving B&B) is bound to be a wise choice indeed.  Within a few
  kilometers of both the walled city of Carcassonne and the delightful Canal du Midi, this vine-covered house 
is just perfect as a private residence or to operate as a charming bed & breakfast.  In the département of the
Aude in the Languedoc-Roussillon (Midi-Pyrénées), this character house, a former 19th century wine estate,
 is set on two and half acres of parkland and surrounded by vineyards and verdant countryside.
  We have many details about the property, house, gîte and, of course, the asking price,
so please contact us with your questions.  We will reply promptly.

---

Unless indicated otherwise, photos, graphics, artwork and text in the FRANCE On Your Own © newsletter are all the property of Cold Spring Press and FRANCE On Your Own © and cannot be copied, duplicated or used in any manner by anyone without the express written permission of Cold Spring Press.  FRANCE On Your Own © is published online by Cold Spring Press, P O Box 26098, San Diego, California  92196-0098.  This publication is copyrighted and no portions of the text, artwork, graphics or photographs may be reproduced or distributed in any  form or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval system without the written permission of the Publisher.   For more information about FRANCE On Your Own ©, visit our web site at http://www.franceonyourown.com.

Recommendations made in this newsletter are based upon the personal experiences of the Publishers or contributing writers solely to provide information to subscribers. Cold Spring Press and FRANCE On Your Own © make no endorsements nor are any guarantees or promises of satisfaction given or implied.  Any and all information is correct to the best of our knowledge, and the Publishers accept no responsibility for errors and/or omissions.  The responsibility lies entirely with  the traveler to obtain current information regarding accommodations, availability, schedules,  prices, reservations, or any other pertinent details.  We do not guarantee the historical accuracy of the contents of articles in this newsletter.  Historical accuracy is dependent upon one's sources of information  -- and contradictions often exist among those sources.   Links to other web sites or email addresses are provided for informational purposes only and do not imply any guarantees of service or endorsement of any organization or their business practices.

FRANCE  On Your Own © is electronically transmitted via email.  To add your email address to our database for this FREE newsletter, send an email to info@franceonyourown.com, and please put Subscribe in the subject line.  We do not share email addresses with any other organization.

BACK ISSUES of the print version of FRANCE On Your Own © and Free online back issues are available on our web site at http://www.franceonyourown.com/Archives.htm.