A Bordeaux Quickie

Harvest

28 hour trip. Sun at Southampton to sleet at Bordeaux.  But first touches of green here and our two plum trees a mass of purple.

To Le Chai. Mark talks me through a tasting of current work- in- barrel. 

New barrels arrive at Le Chai

The Garage White which we used to make in … our garage, of course, is back and tastes as good as ever. No … better! JMS clearly remembers the recipe. It’s a wine made with grapes from three southern French vineyards and has, as Mark says, had more love, care and delicious new oak lavished upon it.

There's a lovely oaked chardonnay destined for America not UK, sadly. The great new vintage La Voute gorgeously rich and out-Burgundying Burgundy. And a cracking new Midi multi-varietal roussanne, marsanne, grenache and such from Quatre Pilas.

JMS - vintage 2012

Reds, there's the Red Garage; not as wild a brute as I remember it. Quite polished and handsome in fact. But still the same blend of Syrahs from the same vineyards as before.

The boys are bursting with ideas and excitement. I want to bottle it all. I'll try!

Jean-Marc and Mark at the tasting table in Le Chai

Mark also let me try his new wine; really his nothing to do with Laithwaite's. I told him to make just what he wanted. It’s called The Hurricane and is as he says the purest expression of Maury mountain Grenache he could manage. All hand done in a tiny cellar with his mate Jean-Charles and family. Bottled last week. Have bought every bottle. It’s Laithwaite's now! Call your Laithwaite's Advisor fast!

Then a quick chat with Lydia, the local artist working on a Castillon region poster for us. It’s to show the incredible number of 12th-, 13th- and 14th-Century Châteaux in our little district. From the time this was all ruled by English Kings and Queens and rather prone to warfare. The poster is to go with a beautiful map we've just had done that shows the vineyards of the key wine estates here. Never done before. Also shows how the better part of St Emilion and Castillon share the same limestone plateau and that there is no sane reason for the political line that divides them. Battle on, Castillon.

Chat with Libby and Mark, about to be torn apart; he off to India and then New Zealand for the vintage (forecast to be spectacularly good after a blazing summer there). She to New York to arrange our first New York Vintage Festival on 5th Avenue! Bit of a change from St Genes!

Anne Marie pouring a beer in Le Comptoir de St Genes

In the evening was the main event. The restaurant at Le Comptoir de St Genes has re-opened after its hols and Anne Marie wanted An Event. She'd seen my iPad doodles that Libby got blown up on big canvases so wanted to do a 'vernissage' and have them on her walls for a few months. 

I said you're kidding but no, she said please. Could never resist girls saying please so the show was on. Along with eight tables showing all our wines from La Clarière, Verniotte, Presbytère Colombe, Le Chai and – big success – Barbara's English Wyfold fizz.

 

Anne Marie sold me four pictures! So now I have a safety net if the wine business goes wrong!

Home happy to bed. Until the crown fell out … eating French bread! So now I really look like a crazy old painter. And I'm going round some rather smart Châteaux tomorrow. Unable to smile! Problem.