The Bordeaux Marathon
September 9th 2008, by GQ
We hosted a small team from Gordon Ramsay’s this weekend as they took part in the Médoc marathon on saturday. ‘Taking part’ is an apt expression because it’s more of a stage show or a carnival than a serious race. A glimpse of the 8000 competitors from all over the world, mostly in fancy dress and running through the vineyards of some of the most prestigious estates in the world, is certainly worth a detour.
Stuart Gillies, the chef from Boxwood Café in London, organised the trip as a birthday present for his boss, Chris Hutcheson. Chris is the father of Gordon’s wife Tana, and he runs the Ramsay empire while his son-in-law does his stuff in front of the cameras or in the kitchen.
Constant Gardening
September 3rd 2008, by GQ
It’s the end of the holidays and the children are back at school. Or, to be more precise, schools, as they are at four different schools this year. Three are in the local town, Créon, while Sophie goes to Carignan a few miles away. Throughout the summer, we try to keep the grounds looking sharp, and the work continues well into the autumn, with no shortage of visitors around harvest time. Our small team are polyvalent, or multi-purpose, so Nellie is equally at home on the lawnmower as she is labelling bottles, packing cases, or racking red wine from one barrel to the next.
Ground Control
August 29th 2008, by GQ
We’re taking advantage of some hot, dry weather before the harvest to rectify a problem underfoot in a parcel of young merlot vines, planted on gravel and clay soils. When we planted them a few years ago, I didn’t realise that a slight incline from right to left would result in deep troughs being carved out by rain water running down the slope, cutting away at the same channel each time it rained. These channels have made it dangerous to drive down the rows with a tractor. So we asked a friend with a ‘minipelle’ to help us sort it out. With Daniel beavering away in the vineyard, I wasn’t going to hire a digger and make a complete hash of it. And it’s very hot.
Changing of the Colour: Véraison
August 18th 2008, by GQ
Even though friday was un jour férié, or Bank Holiday, there was work to be done in the vineyard, and on saturday too. Working on a saturday in mid-August doesn’t go down well with the troops, let alone on a Bank Holiday, but the merlot grapes are changing colour from green to red, a process called véraison. And when it’s about a third of the way through, we spray to protect against botrytis or rot, as do most of the top estates in Bordeaux - even if spraying dates don’t feature in the brochure. This was the second preventative measure against rot, the first having taken place during flowering in early June, and the timing can be tricky to judge. As I walked down the rows I thought “that’s 10% veraison”, “that’s 40%”, and so on until at the end of the parcel, I stuck a finger in the air and said, ‘we’ll do this parcel on friday’. And I’d forgotten about the Bank Holiday.