A great harvest, challenges ahead - Oct review
Posted by Gavin Quinney on 31st Oct 2016
A long and satisfying harvest and, when we factor in both quality and quantity, our best yet. It’s the first time in 18 harvests that we’ve hit the maximum quota that we’re allowed to make for white and also now for red, and volumes are well up on previous years.
Thank the Lord for that, as the joy of having full tanks of fermenting juice has been somewhat diluted by the news surrounding the pound. Exactly one year ago, the exchange rate was €1.40 to £1. Today, at €1.12, we’d have to increase our net price per bottle (i.e. excluding shipping, UK duty and delivery) by 25% in the UK to be level pegging with last November.
It’s certainly a sticky challenge for the UK wine trade going forward and our cheesy ’Wines for the Fall… at prices before the Rise’ email pretty much summed it up. 2017 will be the year of having to come up with a plan.
Harvest-wise, it was red October and after the first article, in which we gloat over the amount of wine we’ve made, there’s a re-cap of the stuff we’ve posted online - not including our drivel (well, Gavin’s) on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
All the best
Gavin & Angela
Bauduc 2016 - our biggest… and best?
An extraordinary growing season and a terrific harvest. Fortune has smiled on us this year and we’re all the more grateful considering the difficulties that many growers faced elsewhere in France. The tanks above show the lottery of growing grapes. Normally, we make roughly the equivalent of three of our 20,000 litre blending tanks of white wine. In 2013, after a 10-minute August hailstorm, we made just one. This year, touch wood, we'll fill almost five. As our biggest selling white in 2015 - our straight Sauvignon Blanc - sold out within a few months, that's welcome news.
Red harvest by hand - in pictures
The harvest was completed at Bauduc on Friday, 21st October. We picked the remaining block of Cabernet Sauvignon by hand, just as we did when Rick Stein came to film the opening episode of his Long Weekends series for the BBC a year ago. (Where does the time go?)
Red harvest by machine - in pictures
We harvested the Merlots, mostly by machine, during the week of 10th October. The grapes looked terrific and one advantage of bringing them in cold by machine at the crack of dawn, is putting them into a chilled stainless steel tank for a cold soak for a few days before starting the fermentation.
Wines for the Fall… at prices before the Rise
To celebrate our bumper crop, here’s our Autumn line-up at last year’s list prices. Given that the pound has plummeted from €1.40 at the end of last October, and from €1.30 mid-June, we wanted to give you plenty of notice that there will be an ’adjustment’ to prices quite soon to accommodate the measly €1.12.
So do order now. Free delivery is for 24 bottles or more in England and Wales, and all wines come in neat little cases of six.
Quinneys picking – in pictures
October 13th: we picked all our Merlot this week, so we’ve just got our Cabernet to go and that’ll be that. It’s been dry and sunny, which is good for bringing in the grapes and, of course, for taking photos. It’s also unusual to have all the children at home at this time of year, so it’s only fair that we put together a gratuitous family album.
Bordeaux 2016 harvest – quality and quantity
This post was also published on Jancis Robinson’s site and Liv-ex, the fine wine exchange.
October 13th: Nature has been kind to Bordeaux this year. A bumper crop for many, and a fine harvest – so far. It may be over for some growers in this vast region but there are plenty of bunches still out there, as numerous chateaux hold on for the later-ripening Cabernets and the last Merlots from cooler soils.
Bordeaux 2016 – the harvest in Pomerol, in pictures
October 7th: As we have to take Tom to school in Libourne each day, it makes sense to pop next door to gauge what’s happening in this famous region. Pomerol is a patchwork of small estates and it’s fascinating to see how they bring in the crop, sort the grapes and make the wine. My photos include this year’s (mostly Merlot) harvest at Chateaux l’Evangile, L’Eglise Clinet, Clinet, Vieux Chateau Certan, La Fleur Petrus, Le Gay, Vray Croix de Gay, Clos l’Eglise plus Haut-Ferrand and Plince (the latter two being by machine).