2008 – Bordeaux's Golden Vintage!

… I just thought I'd coin that phrase before anyone else does! It highlights the fact that 2008 is the latest Bordeaux vintage ever, and for the first time anyone can remember, black grapes were to be seen hanging beneath vine leaves which had turned to gold. Looked stunning.


This phenomenon indicates several things;
1) The weather is crazy. But you probably knew that.
2) Growers here are far more courageous than they ever were, in risking their harvest out there on the vines so very late in the year.
3) Growers have mastered the art – and science – of keeping fruit healthy through the wettest of summers and on until almost November.

A HUGE change. We still have our later-ripening Cabernets to harvest and they will be done on Wednesday, probably after everything else.

The sound of gunfire has now replaced the drone of harvesting machines and so tells me most people have finished already and are on to the next country activity; La Chasse. Walking in the vines has become dangerous. On yesterday's Sunday saunter, a fearful, disembodied red face suddenly appeared before us on our walk; the camouflage clothes and hides are really effective these days and chasseurs do not like walkers. I cannot see what they are shooting at but presumably its the poor palombes who every year must elude the guns if they hope to see their winter quarters in Africa!

We don't shoot. We pass our days plunging and pumping-over. As you shove your plunger or direct your jet of wine through the floating 'cap' of black grapeskins, lovely aromas gush out to overwhelm you. At first it’s buckets of fresh fruit, then it turns to something like strawberry jam as the fermentation kicks in, then this in turn changes to heady aromas of spirity, young wine within just a few days.

I have always found this the most satisfying of jobs; better than shooting and much less strenous than harvesting – and quieter. The harvester's chatter is gone, and so is their thumping boom-box. Its just the quiet of the cellar now, with only the gentle clock-clock of the Manzini on low speed and the gurgle of happy tanks. Wine is being born. Good wine. Very good. Deeply satisfying.

The weather holds good too. Some days are better than anything we saw all summer. Don't want to go home to the UK, but it’s our busy sales time there now. And first there's the little matter of our English vineyard harvest. Now that's going to be really interesting! Do we have ripe grapes or not?