New AOC Rules: Forgive me for yawning
June 17th 2008, by GQ
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 GQ
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 GQ
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 GQ
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.