July photo journal

Posted by Gavin Quinney on 31st Jul 2024

We hope you’re enjoying a fine summer.

It’s been a scorcher in south west France this week. On Monday, we came on the train down to Spain on the hottest day of the year so far at home. Our three-night stopover in Hondarribia, not far from San Sebastian and on the border with France, is our brief summer holiday away from Bauduc, and we return tomorrow. Let’s hope August is sunny, indeed, but not so hot – the poor vines can’t cope with the sort of temperatures around Bordeaux below for long.

Meanwhile, here’s a photo journal of some of the things that happened in July. Of particular interest, if your summer barbecue is in use, is how we cook our beef these days (about half way through this missive).

Our Olympic sale of Mixed cases is still on for the duration of the games in Paris/

All the best

Gavin & Angela Quinney

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When you head off to Spain you don’t normally expect it to be cooler than at home. The TGV from Bordeaux to Hendaye was full but mercifully air-conditioned.

The vineyard at the end of last week. All to play for.

Our gallant roofers will be taking most of August off. This week, they’ve started work at 6.15am each day.

The picture on the left is from first thing on Monday. It was due to be 40ºC later in the day. Goose our cat keeping an eye on things, right.

All calm at the farmhouse. We always seem to get lucky with having really nice guests who stay there. Maybe that’s because we’re all in touch with them directly from the start. For more on this, see our Farmhouse pages on our website.

The trellis of vines brings much needed shade…

… and the pool much needed refreshment. You can just see Pavie having a little look around.

Pip pip! The refurbishment of our pool at the shatto was completed at the start of July. Here’s Ange and Tom inspecting the new stone and the liner. We originally planned to just replace the damaged old tiles and paid the deposit in January 2023 for the work to start. After one or two delays, and a much bigger job, we’ve finally got there (apart from the groundwork needed around the pool, come the autumn).

Tom and some mates from England were the first to christen the cooler water, just as the sun came out.

The sun was most welcome after much of June and early July saw some very mixed weather.

Who needs clear blue skies and sunshine when the scenery can be so much more spectacular with dark clouds and the occasional shower? (An opinion not shared by the organisers of the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris last Friday, I’d imagine.)

Too much rain isn’t something us winegrowers want either, in truth. Here’s Nelly treating the vines against the persistent threat of mildew.

Pavie about to dart out of the way, left. Running repairs by Nelly, right, in the old Cabernet Sauvignon parcel which goes into our Rosé.

And here she is mowing between the (Merlot) vines and trimming them.

More running repairs, this time in the Sémillon.

Daniel’s been off work in July but Nelly is a more than capable colleague.

Our Tom on the lawnmower.

Another Tom, our intrepid Friday handyman, and another lawnmower. In fact, another two lawnmowers.

Here’s Tom 2 inspecting a mains water leak on a Friday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. I’d also called Yann, our paysagiste who’s a dab hand with his digger and knows a lot about water pipes as he installs watering systems (not for vines, mind – they’re not allowed).

I also called the Diaz boys, our plumbers. We call them the boys but they’re from three generations. Everyone did a brilliant job and our guests at the farmhouse had the water back on in time – Friday’s our changeover day – as did we for the weekend. Could have been awkward.

After so much rain this year, the view from our terrace was unsurprisingly lush.

The terrace is where we’ve held most of our tastings so far this summer for regular customers like Charlotte and friends. Failing that, in our kitchen.

Davina, a customer and mate of our eldest, Georgie, brought some girlfriends over from London for a trip to Bordeaux and Bauduc. The vineyards, and the coast maybe, make Bordeaux more than just a city break. (And it’s a great city.)

Max, in blue – who’s actually picked grapes here, twice – did the same for his London flatmates. The boys – and the girls above – used the 407 express bus to the centre of Bordeaux. It takes 40 minutes and runs on the hour, every hour from 7am to 10pm during the week, and costs a whopping €4.10 return. For more, see our Visit the Château page.

My old colleague Pete, his wife Laura and friends were joined for a tasting by Philippa and her husband Tom – who had Bauduc at their wedding – plus their baby and two labs. (We normally charge a small fee per adult, by the way, which can be offset against a juicy purchase on the day.)

Or let us know what time you’d like to pop in and collect some wine, and have a chat and a coffee – like Seraina and Marco, who buy our wine in Switzerland. You too can have your picture taken next to the scaffolding.

We’ve had several visitors come and buy some wine after they’ve been to the market in Créon, not far from the end of our road. The market takes place every Wednesday morning. We’re not always around so advance notice is advisable, for sure.

Les Halles, a huge deli, café and bar at the end of Rue Bauduc, was opened last summer by the owners of the boulangerie called Le Fournil de Créon next door. They’re both frequented by visitors to Bauduc and they’re close to the 407 bus stops.

‘Reverse-seared beef’

If you’re staying in the area then a trip to our butcher is a must (they also have delicious fruit and veg, and fish). On the left is the father and son team at ‘Tout le monde s’y retrouve’. Julien Salinier, the son, speaks decent English by the way. The shop doesn’t have the easiest name to remember so we call it ‘The Man’, as in ‘we’re going to The Man’. It’s named after Monsieur Salinier senior, right, who has a great suggestion for cooking his remarkable beef.

I mention it now because there’s still time to use a simple summer bbq for finishing off the steak.

The quality of the meat is the most important element and this method calls out for a much thicker piece than you would normally buy as a steak for the grill. You can find it online as ‘reverse-seared beef’. Monsieur Salinier – ‘the man’ – recommends a thick piece of top quality beef to be heated in the oven for two hours at 50ºC before searing it for a few minutes on each side.

If you’re a dab hand at making a Béarnaise sauce then that’s an ideal accompaniment. My weird thing is to make industrial amounts of garlic, parsley and mild mustard butter and to freeze small packs of it in kitchen foil. (Hand chop the parsley, not in a machine, or you may have green butter and no one wants that on beef.)

The method is simple. Take the meat out of the fridge in advance and then warm it in the oven at 50ºC for two hours. This is what it looks like after the warming and once it’s been seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper.

You don’t need to cook on the vines and to be fair the Weber wasn’t designed for burning vieilles vignes (they work though). A simple Weber or something like it will do. You just need to sear the beef for a few minutes each side.

For me, when I use the garlic butter, I put the beef on top of a few sheets of kitchen foil and put the slices of the butter on the top. I’ll put one sheet of foil over the top and place a heated pan on top of the foil to melt the butter fully. Sounds a fidge but it isn’t. Then lift out the beef from the foil and pour the melted butter and meat juices into a jug. Once you’ve sliced and served the steak onto hot plates (otherwise the meat goes cold quickly), then pour some of the garlic butter over the meat, probably at the table.

The aim is to serve the beef rare but warm. If someone wants the beef more ‘medium’ then have a hot frying pan at the ready and sizzle a few of the slices quickly on each side.

The reverse-sear method is also great for when you have lots of guests. This was in June, and my thanks to Robert for these pics (and for the generous wine).

Serve with Les Trois Hectares rouge – the 2019 is great, both in bottles and magnums.

If you have any questions or comments, please email us both by clicking this link.

The vines

Meanwhile, in the vineyard, we’ve survived the threat of mildew (touch wood) which has been a huge risk for three of the last four vintages. Too much rain, basically.

A walk around the vineyard shows how much gravel there is at Bauduc. Both images above are of Sauvignon Blanc vines.

Again, you can see the gravel in the top soil of this block of Sauvignon Blanc. This and the following pictures were taken at the end of last week.

It’s looking like a good yield in the Sauvignon Blanc but not a bumper crop.

All our vines are ‘dry-grown’, which is to say that we don’t have any irrigation. That’s largely because we are not allowed to water the vines under French Appellation rules.

Another block of healthy-looking Sauvignon.

The older Sauvignon are still coming up with enough bunches.

Our other white variety is Sémillon, with a restrained yield of bunches on the older vine on the left and a more vigorous volume on the right.

The vine on the right, above, is from this parcel we planted in 2004.

Green and healthy, as of last week.

Sémillon in the background, planted 2004, with Cabernet Sauvignon in the foreground, planted 2015.

Our young Merlot vines, also planted in 2015, produce grapes for our Rosé.

Perfectly healthy Merlot bunches from that block last week. Yet to change colour.

Another parcel of Merlot. Véraison, when the grapes change colour, will be in August as normal. I say normal – in the last two years, véraison started in July. So at least we won’t be in a rush this year to harvest the grapes.