Cathiard, the owner of Château Smith Haut Lafitte in Pessac-Léognan, is an optimist who loves to sing the praises of her property, but she's low-key about the prospects for 2016.

"It will be a good vintage but not a great one," she says. "It will be hard work – yields are low and picking will require multiple passes through the vineyards. It's not the sort of vintage you can direct from your armchair."

The season has not been easy. Flowering was uneven after a damp and cold spring, meaning that ripening has been delayed, by up to two weeks in some cases. Spring was then followed by an unusually hot and dry July and August ("bone dry since Brexit", as Château Bauduc's Gavin Quinney put it, referring to the June 23 UK vote to leave the EU).

While the late spring and early summer rains prepared the vines for drought conditions, the continuing dry weather has vignerons gazing skywards with a prayer on their lips. "We need meaningful rain. Not a few showers, but 25mm," said Martin Krajewski at Château de Sours in Entre-deux-Mers.