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.
14,565 New Vines Planted
May 31st 2008, by GQ
Last week we planted a single parcel of nearly 3 hectares, or 7.5 acres, with a zillion new sauvignon blanc vines, just behind the winery (or chai) at Château Bauduc. A specialist team of 14 people did the whole job in a few days, from tracing out the block, knocking in the small supporting posts, digging the holes and planting the baby vines.
We had ripped the old vines after the 2006 harvest, and then worked hard to get the terrain in the right condition for the new plants. The plan was to plant earlier in the spring but it has been so wet it’s been difficult to prepare the ground properly. It turns out that this has worked in our favour, in that several growers have had problems with vines going in too early and having problems with too much rain or late frosts in April.