Ronnie Scissorhands
July 5th 2008, by GQ
Our new rogneuse arrived this week, complete with numerous spinning blades. New to us, that is, after one careful owner and just twelve months on the road, allegedly. It is immediately being put to good use, trimming the rows of vines after a team of mostly seasonal workers, or saisonniers, have lifted all the vines up through the training wires. Our old machine could just about cope but it’s seen better days, not least during our first full season in 2000 when we bought it brand new. (It should have lasted longer but the both the manufacturer and the distributor have closed down, so it’s tricky to get it fixed each time it goes wrong.) We still have the really old, lethal one that we inherited but we can’t show it here because the inspecteurs de travail would close us down if they knew we still had it. Even visitors to the vineyard exclaim ‘oh my god, what’s that?’ when they peer inside the tractor shed (all part of the longer, more exciting tour), but head boy Daniel is quite attached to it and, besides, he never throws anything away. I should get him on to eBay.
Using the rogneuse (pronounced ron-years, in case you wanted to point one out on your next vineyard tour in France) is a highly skilled job, carried out this week by Hafid while Daniel works on one of the other tractors. By far and away the most labour-intensive aspect though is the work by the saisonniers, lifting the branches of the vines up through the training wires, taking care not to damage the newly formed bunches at knee level.
A Wine Weekend in the Sun
June 30th 2008, by GQ
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 GQ
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 GQ
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.