We’ve had a lot on this month, with more to come, so here’s a rambling journal of images to flick through at your leisure.

Our vineyard manager Daniel will achieve the extraordinary feat of having worked at Château Bauduc for 40 years tomorrow. We’re having a lunch in his honour today as it’s a national holiday on 1 November – and no doubt he’ll want to put his feet up, and deservedly so.

If you have any questions, suggestions or would like to get in touch, please email us both by clicking this link.

All the best

Gavin & Angela Quinney

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Daniel started at Bauduc in 1985, whereas Nelly and the two of us have been here since 1999. This picture was taken during the 2021 harvest.

So too is this one of Daniel with the hand-picked grapes for the Crémant in 2021, left. That’s the vintage we’re currently selling at the château, direct in the UK and in Switzerland through Selection Schwander.

Daniel and Nelly bashing in some replacement wooden posts yesterday.

The last guests for 2025 have just left the farmhouse so lunch under the trellis today, before all the leaves drop off the vines overhead.

“Dearest Gav Man. Here’s one for you. Gary Barlow has asked me to take him to Bordeaux 5th to 8th October. I’ve obvs wet my pants with excitement. Is there any way we could possibly stay with you? PLEEEAAASE x ” Tom Gilbey on WhatsApp, aka @tomgilbeywine on Instagram.

And what a charming guest Gary turned out to be. We had a lovely dinner on the Monday evening after they’d flown in, and had decided to play it cool and not take any photos. So I failed to take any of the bottles and magnums of Château Bauduc which we all enjoyed, which was a tad dopey.

Thankfully, we had a few weeks to plan the trip so I got in touch with Aymeric de Gironde, the head honcho at Château Troplong Mondot, a Premier Grand Cru Classé in Saint-Émilion nearby. Aymeric is an exemplary host and after showing off his horses at work, he drove us around the vineyard in a large Landrover.

They were also nearing the end of the winemaking process so a chance to watch a bit of pumping over.

The sparkly new winery was completed just a few years ago.

The barrel cellar is impressive and can be admired at barrel level and from the scary pathway high above.

The château itself is relatively modest but has been completely renovated and is somewhat plush inside. The view from the private terrace towards the town of Saint-Émilion is quite special.

We lucked out with the weather and enjoyed a fine lunch on the adjacent terrace next to the château. There’s a Michelin starred restaurant behind the winery, by the way, with impressive views across the vineyards on the other side, called Les Belles Perdrix. On the left is Tom’s son and producer Fred, and on the right their videographer and cameraman Hayden, plus Gary’s assistant Emma.

Aymeric treated us to some special vintages, including the 2005. All were excellent. I took this photo of the bottles and caught Gary and Tom rather well. So well in fact that Gary shared it on his Instagram (@officialgarybarlow).

After lunch we stopped off for some photo opportunities and to open some bottles of pre-purchased Pomerol in the actual vineyards. (That’s not really what normal people do when they visit Bordeaux – it’s a Tom Gilbey thing.)

I’d also arranged to go and see Monique and Ronan Laborde at Château Clinet – a top Pomerol that’s quite expensive but isn’t a crazy price.

Tom thought it would be fun to get inside a cuve (vat) and shovel out some grape skins to be pressed, post fermentation.

Monique kindly provided Tom with a t-shirt, for everyone’s benefit.

Again, we were kindly given some fabulous vintages, included the extremely highly rated – and delicious – 2009, and the very rare 1990. There are fewer than 30 bottles of the 1990 remaining at the château. They also have an excellent Pajzos Tokaji from their estate in Hungary, and we enjoyed the 2017 later at Bauduc.

That was after a rather grand tasting which Tom had asked us to lay on before dinner.

As well as the prestigious bottles of Bordeaux red, you might be able to spot our Château Bauduc Crémant (total production 15,000 bottles) and the Gary Barlow Malbec from South Africa (Tesco recently ordered 64,000 cases of 12, allegedly – yours for £7 a bottle on a ClubCard).

"No Gary, we’re not here to do a taste-test between your Malbec and Château Margaux 2005" explained Tom. In fact, as well as the 2014 Château Le Gay and 2014 Château Lafleur from Pomerol, we tasted the celebrated sequence of years ending in 0 or 5 since Gary formed Take That in 1990: 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. I had a fine 2020 lined up too, but we had more than enough as it was for all of us for dinner. The tasting was filmed for Tom’s Youtube channel, for release later on.

Over breakfast, we had a small map on hand to show everyone the areas we were visiting. Funnily enough, we all felt fine after a gala dinner - again, we were too cool for pictures. And we missed the opportunity to make Gary sing for his supper, though he was off-duty after all.

The obligatory shot on the doorsteps before leaving. That’s Georgie, our eldest, on the left, next to Ange and me. And an extra shot with our Sophie.

The Wednesday saw us drive up the D2 north of Bordeaux, and through the plush appellations of the Haut-Médoc. Snaps at Château Palmer and Château Margaux en route.

Then up through Saint-Julien, Pauillac and on to Saint-Estèphe.

Tom had fixed to go to Château Phélan-Segur, Saint-Estèphe.

There, we were welcomed by Véronique Dausse, the charming MD, and the rest of her management team for a tasting and a tour.

Tom enjoyed the winemaking part, while Gary graciously posed with members of staff.

Once again, we had some terrific wines – including the 1996 and 1990 versus more recent vintages.

Then onto Château Pichon Baron in Pauillac. To be fair, I did take plenty of photos of Gary on his own, which I shared with him later. There are only so many pics you’d want with Tom and me.

Corinne at Pichon Baron looked after us brilliantly, and we had a good look around the winery and barrel cellars.

I forgot to take any pictures at this point, but we were snapped during the tasting of some lovely wines, with more over a light supper.

Photo by Hayden, overlooking the Pichon vineyards.

I took some pictures as we relaxed before we headed to the airport.

I think they’d all had a great time, courtesy of our hosts at all the châteaux who looked after us so well.

And maybe the moral of the story when it comes to tours and visits is ‘less is more’. Even if we did have just a little too much wine.

We haven’t shared this kind video on social media or anything, but we thought it fun to include it in our newsletter to our customers, friends and family.

Onwards and upwards.