Daniel our vineyard manager – a photo journal 1999-2026, part two

Our vineyard manager Daniel retired at the end of June, having started at Bauduc way back in 1985. We have put together a photo journal of his time with us, and we sent the first part out last week – click here if you missed it.

Here’s the second part. Above is a photo of Daniel and Nelly with us five years ago during the 2021 harvest. We’ve all worked together since our first harvest in 1999 – we took Nelly on as a trainee then.

If you have any questions or comments, please email Georgie, Angela and Gavin by clicking this link, or simply reply to this email. Georgie’s at home holding the fort so we’re well covered.

All the best

Gavin & Angela Quinney

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Our journal is really a digital version of the book of photographs which we gave to Daniel to enjoy during his retirement. And rest assured we’ve got an able replacement in Nicolas, who has been here since mid-May and is taking responsibility for the vineyard and winery along with Nelly.

Now you may recall from part one (well done if you battled through it) that we had two hail storms in May 2009 which wiped out a lot of our crop. This was Daniel back then with an expression that said it all.

When we had a hailstorm in May, the vines were at an early stage of the growing season. The young leaves and branches were trashed before the bunches of grapes had even formed.

Four years later we were hit by hail again, in early August. I took this picture just before the hailstorm on a Friday evening and, as you can see, the vines are much further advanced than they had been in May.

If that was the ‘before,’ this was the ‘after’ shot.

The hail had come in from the Atlantic side and had been propelled by strong winds. Many of the fully-formed but unripe grapes were split or damaged.

Forgive the aside, but this is a weirdly appropriate photo of the evening of Friday, 2 August 2013: we had supper that night with our great friends the Gilbeys and the Rylands at our farmhouse. The barbecue was delayed as the hail storm came in.

Almost 13 years on, we’ve just stayed with the Gilbeys in London and had lunch last week with the Rylands, who were over for a week’s holiday from Scotland. Added to which, our Georgie is with her oldest friend Georgia Campbell on the right of this pic, and they met up this week some two hours south of Bauduc, having not seen each other for ages.

For Daniel though, this second season of hail damage was even tougher than before, as all the work had been done in the vineyard to get the grapes ready before the harvest.

He’s shown here with Patrick Delmarre, our vineyard consultant, along with some damaged bunches in September before the harvest.

With Palmer, our black lab and Goose the cat. Goose is still with us and a much-treasured pet.

These pics were taken in September 2013, showing the grapes which had been hail damaged.

Red as well as the white grapes were hit.

We did have some blocks which weren’t too badly hit, especially the rows which had some protection from trees.

Daniel had grown his hair since the first year of hail damage, but we don’t know if there’s an actual link. This was the winter pruning in December 2013.

By the following summer he’d gone full Joey Ramone.

This was our first harvest for our Crémant in 2014. My mother Diana, left, came to witness this momentous event.

We borrowed and hired the stackable plastic crates to put the bunches of grapes into. Daniel said that the supplier of the hired ones referred to some as ‘seconds’.

There are times when you wonder how a simple product could be classed as a reject, but then you find out why.

With Sarah, an Erasmus exchange student who stayed for several months, and Cattie and Sandra, two of our seasonal workers in the vines. And, on the right, with Monsieur Rontein, who ran the local oenology laboratory where we took all our samples for analysis. He had the manner of a school teacher, which is why I’ve always known him as Monsieur Rontein. He too has recently retired.

As well as growing his hair long, Daniel had an impressive collection of boilersuits.

He also likes self-deprecating T-shirts.

Daniel with Nelly and the two gentlemen who run our harvest machines. Like Daniel, Guy and his son Nathan come from the Charente, a connection of which they are quite proud, so they’re thick as thieves. All four were at Daniel’s retirement lunch last week.

A staff lunch is usually part of the package in France. That’s Hugo on the left, one of many harvest trainees over the years.

We would go to the equipment fair called Vinitech when it was Bordeaux’s turn to host it. This was Daniel with Pascal Joisnot, who was based locally anyway and from whom we have bought several tractors over the years.

After the hail of 2013, three solid vintages followed. This was 2015, with Papi and the dogs, Pavie, Margaux and Palmer.

In front of Daniel are Bugs, Sophie, Tom and Ange.

With Rick Stein during the harvest in October 2015. Daniel wouldn’t take centre stage, but he quietly marshalled the troops.

The plentiful 2016 harvest.

The 2016 vintage was a good one.

2017 was another tricky one. Bordeaux hadn’t experienced a bad spring frost since 1991, so we were taken by surprise by the damage to the vines at the foot of our slopes one morning in late April.

This was a week after the frost, so it was clear something wasn’t quite right.

3 May 2017 and it was all looking a bit mournful on the lower slopes.

The work in the vineyard carried on regardless.

Even though it was a smaller crop.

No Crémant that year in 2017, for example, as the block was ‘frosted’.

Onwards to the next year.

Briefing the neighbours on the spray treatments we’d be using through the growing season, with Patrick and Nelly, probably wasn’t Daniel’s favourite event.

2018 was an excellent year and the first of three ’solar’ vintages. Well, sunny for much of the time. A rare shot of Daniel with a harvest fag.

With Nelly in the cuverie.

With Christine, Daniel’s partner, and to the left of Daniel, Ed, who worked with us for a season and took some fine photos.

Bottling the 2018 white in January 2019. Photo by Ed Findlay, as is the one below.

2019 was a successful year too. Little did we know we wouldn’t have nearly enough wine, come the following Spring.

March 2020, we had to get packing. You can mix and match bottles on our website in the UK these days, but in 2020 we sent over pre-mixed cases.

Summer 2020 and we had a few visitors, such as here when bottling some reds.

2020 was another solar vintage, and the third in a row. Papi, aka Michel, on the right, features quite a bit in these images. He was at our retirement lunch for Daniel last week. He himself decided to hang up his boots from helping out with our harvest just recently. Which is fair enough as he’s now 92.

We forget the working environment of the 2020 harvest.

Some of those working here then. A shoutout to Luigi in the pink, who was our one-day-a-week gardener, especially for the farmhouse, for many years.

Hosing down the harvest trailers at the end of the day.

It would be remiss not to have Daniel loading pallets onto a lorry. How many he and Nelly have done over the last 26 years doesn’t bear thinking about.

Another team lunch.

In 2021 we bought Daniel a new toy, with another tractor. In fact, the last payment on the bank loan ends this coming September. Hooray.

Tom working with Daniel on our 2020 Celebration Cuvée, which is still available in magnum.

Daniel with the grapes for our Crémant in September 2021.

This delicious, traditionally-made sparkling wine is available on our website and was described as ‘excellent’ by Victoria Moore in The Telegraph, 27 June 2026.

Daniel and Nelly loading the bunches into the press.

The four of us on the harvest machine, September 2021. To be fair, Daniel was more of a fan of machine harvesting the Sauvignon than the hand picking for the Crémant.

With three ‘stagiaires’ for the 2021 harvest. Bruno from Portugal, left, then next to Nelly was Sophie, an interior designer from Paris and now Marseilles, and right, Winnie, a sommelier from Singapore via the Caribbean.

Some estate maintenance work at the start of 2022.

With Philipp Schwander MW, right, our importer in Switzerland, and our consultant oenologist Mikaël Laizet. June 2022.

With Nelly and Christiane, who helps us with the farmhouse, June 2022.

The 2022 harvest.

Daniel and yet another trailer full of grapes. Sauvignon Blanc, 31 August 2022.

The harvest celebration, 2022. Third from the right is Stéphane Defraine, a neighbouring grower who originally employed Daniel at Bauduc in 1985.

Stéphane helping Daniel out the following spring. And unloading a few barrels.

The winter pruning.

Replacing a few vines.

The 2023 harvest.

This was our 25th harvest together.

Tasting grapes with our consultant oenologist Mikaël Laizet.

And a little blending and tasting.

The vineyard is dangerous work from the winter pruning onwards. The only time that Daniel flipped the tractor over was in June 2023. He was off work for a while, but he was a lucky boy.

With Will, our harvest trainee in 2024. Will wins the prize of gaining the most respect from Daniel for his hard work.

2025 was Daniel’s last full season. Here with our long standing vineyard consultant Patrick Delmarre.

Our final harvest together as a team in 2025 – our 27th.

We’ve no doubt Daniel will be seeing a lot more of Guy as they live close to each other near Cognac.

Daniel holding court at the 2025 harvest lunch (with Ange’s dad, David, right).

A little autumn maintenance.

Ever helpful with important things at the château, such as dragging in and putting up the Christmas tree.

The last bottling in late January.

Passing on his ideas and experience for future plantings.

We’ve been doing a little maintenance work around the winery, so we thought best to get some of it done while Daniel could still tell us where the pipes were.

Daniel has said his goodbyes but the team will carry on with Nelly and Nicolas at the helm.

Daniel with his partner Christine, 1 July 2026. Their son Mathias was born in 1985, and he lives with his partner, Marjorie and their two boys in Nice. Daniel and Christine will now have more time to see them all.

Bonne retraite !

Daniel and his photo book – on which this post is based.

Onwards and upwards.