Jane Anson’s report highlighted the fact that this exclusive label has been awarded to us for free, and that we’re celebrating ten years as the house wine at his restaurants.

‘Gordon Ramsay’s Selection’ includes two whites, a red and our rosé, all of which are served at his restaurants. All are currently available direct from our website, including a super mixed dozen.

On friday, the same day that the Decanter.com news item was published, we delivered a few cases to the Ramsay household for their post-London Marathon party today. Perhaps our new strapline should be ‘So good, Gordon drinks it at home’.

Cepes are in season, so these, served with scallops, and the house speciality of foie gras pan-fried with a grape sauce, were the popular choice for starters. And you can’t go wrong with Cote de Boeuf, cooked rare. God knows what the bill would have been if we hadn’t taken along all the red wine.

After gorging ourselves, it was out in the vineyard for me on a fresh sunday morning, tasting grapes with a dodgy palate. Then roast chicken for sunday lunch, which is usually preceded at this time of year by fresh oysters bought from the village. Unbeatable with a glass of chilled Bauduc blanc.

Fun, slightly exhausting, and next time we should consider hiring in some outside help. A flurry of emails though from grateful guests on their return home, including one from Joint MD Caroline Fry saying ‘your hospitality was amazing’, make homespun events like these all the more worthwhile.

Oz kindly agreed to sign a stack of books for our customers this November, each with a personal dedication, so an offer to Bauduc customers by email is imminent (to be included, go to ‘Chateau Bauduc’ above and sign up for the email newsletter, or contact me, as above).

Some serious players turned out for the launch in the wine bar at the CIVB, including Alain Vauthier of Chateau Ausone (pictured with Oz, and Madame Mitjaville of Chateau Tertre Roteboeuf), Alan Sichel, the head of the Union des Maisons (negociants) de Bordeaux, and Sylvie Cazes-Regimbeau, President of the Union des Grands Crus.

Afterwards, I had dinner with Oz, his publisher and his wife, and his long-suffering assistant Fiona at Café Gourmand near Les Grands Hommes. Oz and I had both eaten here before but we didn’t realise that it had recently changed hands. Stylish French cooking has given way to a Franco-American brasserie, with burgers on the menu alongside French classics. It almost works, but not quite. Although he didn’t want to order the Chateau Clarke 2003, it was the best value on the wine list. Unsubtle and punchy – a hearty drop from a roasty toasty vintage. I was reminded of Stephen Brook’s comment on this estate in Listrac in his excellent book, The Complete Bordeaux: ‘It has proved a difficult property to manage. The Rothschilds may, after years of costly investment, have realized why the property had been abandoned’.

Both books should be on every Bordeaux lover’s bookshelf – and they won’t look out of place on the smartest coffee tables.

We have one parcel which will be ready before all the others – this week in fact – a block of sauvignon blanc vines which we planted in 2004.

This year sees our first real crop from this part of the vineyard, and although yields for our whites will be feeble, partly as a result of an April frost, the potential from this parcel looks healthier. Daniel, our vineyard manager, and our old friend, Ronan Sayburn, check out the grapes. Ronan, who has come to stay (and work) with us during the harvest, was Gordon Ramsay’s Executive Head Sommelier, to give him his full, understated title. He managed Ramsay’s wine lists and team of sommeliers for eight years before taking a year out to further his knowledge of wine. This he achieved by scuba diving in Thailand traveling to vineyards around the world with his girlfriend, Corinne, a fellow former Ramsay sommelier. 

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.

It was the first time that either Chris or Stuart (pictured left) had run in the Bordeaux event and we were seriously impressed that this was Chris’s 71st marathon. I had met him briefly before at a lunch party at Gordon and Tana’s home in Wandsworth, and that too was after the London Marathon a few years ago. Stuart stayed with us at Bauduc a few years back so it was a pleasure to cook for him once again: gigot d’ agneau de Pauillac (Pauillac lamb), served pink with our Trois Hectares 2005 red, from magnum. Can’t go wrong with ingredients like that. (In fact, it could have done, but thankfully it didn’t).

We had a great weekend and they even volunteered for a walk around our vines on sunday morning. However, Chris was not impressed with the paltry collection of Ramsay cookery books in our kitchen, so he very kindly Fed-Ex’ed a stack of them to us on his return to London. The only downside is that they roped me into running next year. I’m looking forward to it, although, unlike for many of the runners, fine claret is not a refreshment I would choose as sustenance when running 26 miles for the first time. 

“I strongly urge you to take advantage of the revolution in white winemaking in Bordeaux. I know I have said the same about Rhone wines but that doesn’t make it any less true of Bordeaux. If only there were a similar revolution in Burgundy…”

Strong stuff, but as a vinespotter in Bordeaux and not Burgundy, I’m not rushing to complain. Days earlier, Eric Asimov, the New York Times’ wine critic, posted this equally positive piece, entitled ‘A Bordeaux of a different color’, on his excellent blog, The Pour. ‘For good white Bordeaux, 2007 is a superb vintage’.

Earlier in July, we sent out our first carte postale email to a few friends and customers, urging them to consider our Bordeaux Blanc Sec 2007 this summer. Naturally, we got more replies saying ‘we love the postcard’ than actual orders, but bit by bit the message is getting through. There are some really good wines made with sauvignon blanc and/or sémillon from this part of the world, especially from the 2006 and 2007 vintages.  And for around £20 on the wine list, I still think ours is the best value wine at restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London’s only three Michelin star restaurant. 

If you’d like to be on the mailing list for these carte postales, and they’ll all be short, sweet and infrequent, do sign up on our www.bauduc.com site or email me. You can unsubscribe at any time once you get bored of them. The sign-up form is on the bottom of every page of the Bauduc site, which can also be found by clicking the big red blob in the top right hand corner of this blog. Apologies if, as an old friend or customer, you should have received one.

Plug over.

I had a brief chat with Rick, who was fully immersed in filming a one-off Christmas show and another series for the BBC with his old sparring partner, director David Pritchard.  They’ve worked together for donkey’s years, and I first met the affable, Rumpole-like David when they were filming Rick’s French Odyssey series during their Bordeaux pitstop in 2004.  He calls me Greg, for some reason, but, in his defence, he does meet a lot of people on their travels together.  Rick and Dave’s third BBC series exploring food and cooking outside Britain, having covered South West France and then the Mediterranean, will be set around Asia.

The day before our dinner at the Seafood, Jill Stein kindly came to see me while I was with Rupert Wilson, the General Manager, who generously gave up half a morning to show me around.  Jill is the creative force behind the recent refurbishment and, like Rick whenever he’s in town, has always made a point of saying hello whenever we’ve been over, which is nice.  She has a lower profile than her ex-husband, of course, although she now has a page on Rick Stein.com, promoting her interior design work.  There can’t be many celebrity ex’s who have a prominent entry on their former spouse’s website (at least, not in a positive sense) but this is a hugely successful partnership, and Jill plays a key role in the enterprise.  An extraordinary enterprise it is too: most people know that there are umpteen establishments in the Stein empire within this small seaside town – restaurants, a cookery school, a deli, a bakery, a café, and so on – but even the most observant visitor might not realise that they have 40 beautifully decorated rooms around the town, and over 280 staff. 

On my guided tour behind the scenes it was clear that no expense has been spared on getting things right.  ’Jill’s got great taste’, I said to Rupert. ‘Very expensive taste’, he muttered as we glanced around another new bathroom, with the air of a man with targets to hit.

Rumour has it, and don’t quote me on this, that the refit of the Seafood Restaurant, most of which was completed in just four weeks in January 2008, cost upwards of £2 million.  The walk-in fridges alone must have soaked up a tidy sum and it was an eye-opener to witness the colossal investment behind the scenes. It certainly feels good to be involved as a supplier, safe in the knowledge that the fruits of our labour are being showcased in the best possible taste.

But what of the new look restaurant as returning customers?  We’ve had scores of great meals at The Seafood with family and friends over the last 20 odd years, so I was a touch apprehensive that a complete makeover might have washed away some of the charm of this famous quayside diner.

I may be biased, but the new design is, quite simply, brilliant, with slick replacing hick in all the right ways. The grander entrance is now on the left and the extension for this was excavated from the rock that holds up the old, grey Metropole hotel on the hillside above. From the impressive new reception with it’s amazing, huge all-white fish chandelier, there’s still the option of having a swift sharpener in the conservatory at the front as you browse through the menu, or the wine list.  This seating area next to the quayside is largely unaltered, and once inside the restaurant, the same paintings as before carry over some of the ambience of the old place, along with a splash of colour and drama.  Aside from the pictures, though, the visual impact is dramatically different once you step inside. The new layout and interior is stunning.  A stylish central bar area, where the full menu is served to those seated all around it (no prior reservation needed if you want to chance it), provides a new focal point for the far more spacious dining room.  Pale beechwood floors and ceilings mix with white walls and light wood tongue-and-groove panelling, beautifully set-off under carefully orchestrated lighting, and the tall, elegant banquette seats around the outside walls face the comfortable, creamy leather, wooden-backed chairs.  We were immediately converted – it’s elegant, spacious, modern, comfortable and original – and has one of the best atmospheres for enjoying good, fresh food and a chilled glass of wine that you could wish for. My vote would be to go as a group of six or eight and ask for one of the round tables. 

There’s so much that’s new and different that it was re-assuring to see some of the old favourites on the menu: the classic warm shellfish starter, roast troncon of turbot with hollandaise, and many others.  There are plenty of recent creations too – a couple of delicious sounding fish curries and a tasting menu – and we’ll no doubt see more Asian influences once the BBC series begins.  I chose the warm shellfish to start, and the two Mrs Quinneys and I all went for the lobster for mains, grilled with fines herbes. Both courses were absolutely delicious, with the lobster timed to perfection under the grill.

Choosing the same main course may be unadventurous (and a real treat as far as the price is concerned) but it makes the wine selection easier, and this where our friend Roni comes into the picture. Roni Arnold, who many people don’t realise is Jill’s sister, has been the head sommelier at the Seafood for as long as I (or she) can remember, and it was to her that I took my first bottle of white wine eight years ago.  After all, I’d worked my way through much of the wine list as a customer in the fifteen years before that, so it seemed only fair for Roni and Rick to taste it.  (The man from Del Monte said no to our first vintage, the 99, but gave the thumbs up to the white from our first full season the following year, after he had come to Bordeaux and looked around the vineyard).

Roni has stayed at Bauduc and it was really good to catch up on all the news, although we probably distracted her from her duties, leaving second-in-command Jason to run around even more than usual.  We drank Pieropan’s Soave Classico 2006 with the starters – my suggestion at £26 – and although it was sound and dry, we found it a bit limp and unexciting.  The 2006 Chardonnay from Hamilton Russell, a vineyard in Walker Bay, near Hermanus in South Africa, where I visited years ago, was a much more enjoyable affair and perfect for the lobster.  For a reasonable £41, it had the right balance of richness and racy acidity to cut through the creamy flesh and butteriness, without being cloying or overpowering. 

One of the next door tables was drinking Chateau Bauduc Bordeaux Blanc, but I didn’t have the nerve to ask them if they were enjoying it, or to triumphantly claim that I had grown the grapes and made the stuff.  Perhaps I should have done – it can’t happen that often – but they seemed to be having a good time without any need for interruptions.

Our wine would certainly work with many of the dishes at The Seafood Restaurant- but not the curries – and for £19.50 (come in Wine Number 3), it’s a bit of a steal in one of Britain’s greatest restaurants.  But, then again, I would say that.

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.

Sunday was even hotter and the afternoon was spent with friends in the Graves at a charity wine auction. Sean and Nicky Allison of Château du Seuil generously hosted the event, while I was commandeered to be the wine auctioneer.  This is the second year that organiser Jacqui and her husband Jean-Michel have raised money for the school in the African village of Ya, in Burkina Faso, by getting vineyards to donate a few bottles to be sold off.  Sean and I managed to chisel 13,000 euros out of a willing audience, on top of the raffle and other goodies.  Most of the wine was local, of course, but I came home with 24 expensive half-bottles of Austrian sweet wine after a poor attempt at bouncing bids off non-existent walls.  So if you ever come to Bauduc and are presented with a blind tasting of sweet wines, you could hazard a guess at a Gruner Veltliner Trockenbeerenauslese.  

I slept through most of the Euro final on our return home, nodding off once Torres had nicked what turned out to be the only goal.  Viva España.

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. 

Download La Gazette No. 21 Summer 2008 as pdf (1.8mb)

After a debacle two years ago, when La Poste failed to frank the envelopes and numerous customers in Britain were obliged to pay for what could loosely be described as junk mail, we are very nervous about what’s going to happen this time.

I drove the entire consignment down to the sorting office in Bordeaux, and this helpful chap assured me that everything would be fine, especially once he had cleared things up with his mate on the receiving end in Paris. A donation of wine to the next office party seemed to help.

Fingers crossed. If you don’t receive a Gazette and you think you should be on this exclusive mailing list,

please email me. If my inbox is full, you’ll know that La Poste have been up to their old tricks.

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.