June 2025 photo journal

Posted by Gavin Quinney on 30th Jun 2025

What a scorcher. Though to be fair it’s probably as hot here as it is for any of our readers at the moment: 40˚C is the forecast for 1 July. Crikey.

So that heralds the return of the famous Bauduc Rosé summer cocktail as a headline act, shown below. Our Crémant 2021 however is hard to beat as an alcoholic refreshment, and the visitors and buyers at the château this month have almost always included some Crémant as part of their order. The Rosé wasn’t far behind.

The vines are in good shape so we’re hopeful that they’ll withstand the summer heat for a while, touch wood. It’s been a hectic month and we’re only scratching at the surface of what’s been happening with this photo journal.

Some sad news though as we pay tribute to Pavie, the last of our ‘three musketeers’ and a true, small dog of the vineyard and of the Bauduc family.

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

PS Sorry it’s late in the day but we were testing the Bauduc Rosé cocktail measures.

The Bauduc Rosé cocktail

For 12 long drinks (of about 200 cl each) pour a chilled 75 cl bottle of Château Bauduc Rosé 2024 into a large jug, plus 25 cl cranberry juice, 10 cl of lime cordial, the juice of a freshly squeezed lime and about 15 cl of vodka. Adjust to taste and preferred strength. Keep cool or cold.

To serve, put some ice into tall tumblers (or big wine glasses) and pour in the mix to half way. Then fill with Canada Dry ginger ale – you’ll need a 1.5 litre bottle for this amount. Garnish with fresh mint leaves (optional) and a small wedge of a second lime, squeezing it as you drop it in.

Alternatively, the 2024 rosé is extremely good on its own.

The Crémant 2021, the Rosé 2024 and Sauvignon Blanc 2024 are our most popular wines at the moment.

If you thought it was hot at home, take a look at these temperatures.

If you’re in South West France and it’s seriously hot, have a look at the weather forecast for the coast.

The vineyard in front of the house this morning, looking green and lush.

A quick walk around the vines this morning. Verdant and healthy Sauvignon Blanc.

Here’s another block of Sauvignon Blanc. The yields are more up and down.

The old vine Sémillon looking healthy though with fewer bunches.

The Sémillon on younger vines, planted in 2004.

There’s a good yield, touch wood, on the Merlot.

Green and healthy before the canicule (heatwave).

The younger vines on gravel soils are the more likely to suffer over time.

This Cabernet Franc, planted 10 years ago, goes into our Rosé.

Cabernet Sauvignon on the left. The new grapes have come on well since the flowering four weeks ago.

Sauvignon Blanc, left, earlier this month, 3 June.

Merlot on 7 June.

Daniel, left, keeps the mildew at bay using the sprayer. Patrick Delmarre has been our vineyard consultant for donkey’s years.

We bring these guys in to do the manual stuff like lifting the vines between the training wires and removing unwanted shoots. They’re willing and efficient, even in hot weather.

Nelly trimming the vines and mowing between the rows.

Angela mows the lawn by the pool at the farmhouse on a Friday morning, the changeover day.

Yoann and his team installed air conditioning for us at the farmhouse in April. It’s probably the best decision we’ve made this year, even if it has cost us nearly 20,000 euros for the full monty. We’re full for 2025 (to the end of October) and there is still some availability for the season (April through October) in 2026. See the Price and Availability page on our website.

June is a busy month for visitors. Of all sorts.

‘Visits by appointment’ is how we operate. There are the two of us plus Daniel and Nelly in the vineyard, so we have to keep it that way.

Just let us know ahead if you want to come and buy some wine.

Or we can organise a tasting for any of our customers or subscribers for a modest fee, with some notice, and as long we are about. Details on the ‘Visit the Château’ page here though July is getting fairly booked up.

‘I’d like to try the Crémant before buying a case’, ‘we’d like to come and stock up’ or ‘we are big fans of your wine’ normally does the trick.

We are always happy to receive longstanding customers, wherever possible. Just let us know in advance. (And sometimes at short notice.)

So many great stories.

Richard, left, is a tutor at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, so we tasted a few bottles.

The current line up for tastings.

When we say you can buy wine ‘at the cellar door’, we don’t really mean this one at the house.

Right: supplying an ice cream from our freezer could have been disastrous but it all worked out ok.

Back to the hot weather. On Friday the 13th we had a close call with a storm in the evening after a minor heatwave – it reached 34˚C that day. Luckily, the hail we had was ‘diluted’ by the really heavy rain and the wind wasn’t that strong.

Other growers further inland were less fortunate and were hit quite badly.

The following morning, Saturday 14th. The heavy rain helpfully provided some refreshment for the hot period ahead.

We weren’t so fortunate on the evening way back on Friday 2 August 2013. We had been invited to have supper with Tom and Beth Gilbey and their children at the Farmhouse here, and James and Mel Ryland and their children came too. (Coincidentally, the Gilbeys are coming to stay in a few weeks, and we’re seeing the Rylands then too. Crikey.)

We’d also just got a new dog a few months before, and we called him Pavie.

That evening a storm came in and unfortunately, the hail arrived too.

It only lasted a few minutes but the small hail stones were propelled into the vines by strong winds.

Leaves were shredded and grapes were split, or worse.

We lost about half the crop and much of it was damaged and bruised.

Funnily enough, Pavie was always frightened by storms after that.

And now he’s seen his last because sadly, he developed a tumour in his nose recently and he died this month.</p.

After a scan had confirmed the worst, and when the tumour made life very uncomfortable for him, we had him put to sleep by the local vet. He was perfectly comfortable at the end as we held him close. The pic on the right is of Pavie a month ago.

We have many happy memories with the Pavster as a much-loved family pet, so forgive us this little tribute to him and his life in the vines.

For a Jack Russell he settled in pretty well with Goose the cat. (Who’s still going strong.)

Pavie joined Palmer, our lovely black lab, and Margaux the terrier. Here with our son Tom, now 21.

New plantings exactly 10 years ago. Pavie would feature in my Bordeaux vintage reports for 2015:

The Three Musketeers. And Merlot.

With Goose the cat too.

The white harvest in 2016, with Georgie.

With Tom…

… and Bugs.

With Sophie and Angela, and the old vines.

With Goose in the Sauvignon Blanc.

With Margaux in the old vines. Sémillon.

With Daniel and Guy, the harvest machine driver.

All the staff loved the dogs. With Patrick, Nelly, Ed and Sandra.

Pavie did actually nip a few men who made the mistake of ringing the doorbell and walking across the threshold. Thankfully, that did not include Philipp, our importer from Zürich.