April review - all in it together
Posted by Gavin Quinney on 1st May 2020
If March was mad, April has been bonkers. We may be in lockdown but we've never been busier, and the vines aren't holding back either.
For many years, we've put our monthly news review together on the penultimate day of the month with the deadline approaching. This time we've typed this up at lunchtime, so forgive the drivel.
Keep safe, stay at home and stick to good wine.
All the best,
Gavin & Angela Quinney
Getting the wine from A to B
Thanks to everyone who has posted a picture of their Bauduc delivery. This month's lockdown winner is Michele (Instagram and Twitter @pistewino) with her Bauduc cases and Converse matching from Scotland.
Wow, what a busy month of sales. Over 1,000 online UK orders in a month from when our new vintages went live on bauduc.com on 20th March, which is, um, slightly more than usual. As we said last week when we emailed everyone to thank them for their order, it may be small beer for a lot of wine retailers in the UK but a huge result for a petit château. 100 online orders yesterday, in fact, and to complete the round numbers theme, 100,000 bottles left the vineyard in March and April. That's half our annual production in a good year, so we might need a business plan soon. Answers on a postcard please (or email Gavin as above, as the actual post is a touch slow).
Our biggest worry has been getting enough stock over to the UK to meet the demand for home deliveries. But we're getting there. This was last night, 29 April - another full load.
Victoria Moore's Wine of the Week
It's always good to be mentioned in the press, not least by a highly respected wine critic. Victoria Moore of the Telegraph picked out our Sauvignon Blanc 2018. "These bottles were intended for Rick Stein’s restaurant, where Bauduc sauvignon blanc has been a stalwart of the list for many years now. Bordeaux sauvignon blanc is refreshing, nettly, citrusy and greatly underappreciated by sauvignon drinkers. You’ll find some newer releases on the Bauduc site as well, with free delivery to England and Wales for orders of 12 or more bottles, though please order in multiples of 12." Toot toot.
All in it together
Speaking of which, anyone in the wine trade will tell you that while restaurants are unable to trade, home delivery sales are booming. So we got in touch with the Stein family last week and suggested that we should buy back the wine they'd bought from us and which we'd shipped from the château at the start of March. It had all been paid for.
This morning we collected seven pallets from Cornwall to take to our London warehouse - far better that our mutual friends can enjoy a glass of the rosé or white, even if it can't be in one of their brilliant restaurants (for now). With our stock running low, it's a small win-win-win.
Vigilance in the vineyard
The vines are well ahead this year (see the header shot), while many people's attention is on how wine growers are coping in the lockdown. Our main concern is making sure everyone stays well and fit, other than the usual stress of what nature can throw at us in varying ways: thankfully for us, we weren't hit by the hail storms that caused considerable damage just up the road from us on Friday 17th April. Parts of the Entre Deux Mers, Saint-Emilion and beyond were hit, although we haven't been allowed out to peruse the damage. This was from the morning after, below, with much relief.
Happy birthday to DQ
Mrs Diana Quinney celebrated her 87th birthday yesterday. Margaux and Pavie have kept her ladyship safe since early March, when she arrived for a short break. Here she is with an old vine in Les Trois Hectares, then and now. We should probably point out that she does have more than one outfit with her.
More time in the vines
So much has changed for everyone involved with wine, and in the vineyards there is so much to consider during the growing season, with some months to go before the harvest. This positive comment from an Italian wine producer, from a piece on Jancis Robinson's website, made us smile.
"The vines are benefiting from the extra time that the vintners can spend taking care of them because of the cancellation of all the wine fairs, wine events and promotional tours around the world.”
