Manning the pumps and trying not to spill wine all over the floor … today I'm a cellar-hand again;

A.m. Writing this in five-minute bursts on the old BlackBerry. Why? Because five minutes is the time it takes to pump out a barrel of wine. 250 litres of Bordeaux Castillon red, in fact.

And today that's what I am doing; I'm a cellar-hand again. And I love it. It’s a beautiful day in Bordeaux and there are golden beaches a short drive away. But working with wine is - and always has been - way more fun.

Oops! Too slow. Stop pump. Remove pipe, put in next barrel, start pump. Roll empty barrel to the steam washer.

This is a wine my son Henry has made for Laithwaites. A 2006 vintage. The first he's done for us. But he's been making wine nearly ten years now - he's 27 this summer.

He’s just won two more important silver medals for his wines. Proud father. So I am helping him out today.

Oops! Missed another - must not let the pump run dry!

What he's doing is 'racking' the wine. What the French call ‘Soutirage'. As the wine ages in its barrel it throws a sediment and this can taint the wine. The wine can take on the stale odour of it. So the sediment or ‘lees’ needs to be removed and the clear wine freshened up by a gentle trip into a tank where all the barrels are blended together. The barrels are then washed and the refreshed wine is put back. This time for its last stint in barrel before being bottled in the summer.

I hope we will be selling this wine soon. Cotes de Castillon 2006. Look out for it … there won't be a lot.

He's also made a fat and juicy 'Clairet' - pale red, to be drunk young like Beaujolais. It’s not really a pink at all. A red, but lighter coloured and fruitier. Wines like this - very young wines - were what originally caused the British and Irish to fall in love with Bordeaux wine back in 1066 or thereabouts. It was 'clairet' they loved. Not 'claret'. That came much later.

Anyway today’s clairet was very nice with today’s cellar lunch of bread ham and cheese. We might just get him to make more of that for Laithwaites this vintage.

P.m. He's given me 20 mins to finish my lunch, coffee and this entry before we start pumping the wine back into the cleaned barrels. Have to be much more attentive to that pump this p.m. Too slow on the switch and the wine's all over the floor. Big trouble.