Newsletters
 April, 2010
Dear Customer,
This newsletter is shorter than normal, because our Ardres shop is closed until the middle of January.
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New Reduced Cross Channel Fares
There is a limited period offer with Eurotunnel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from the 6th to 22nd April at a rate of £22. This is not available on line but you need to telephone 0844 879 7371.
On a more permanent basis, I am delighted to be able to tell you that we are currently developing a collaboration with SeaFrance. As a result they have agreed to offer you, as a Boursot’s Wine Collection customer, a special day return crossing fare of just £20 for your car and all passengers Sundays to Fridays, and £25 on Saturdays. These are available to you for the rest of 2010 – and that includes during the high season.
As a registered member of our database, you can book at these special rates directly on this link. If you lose this link, you can also go onto www.seafrance.com and in the booking panel, enter the code Boursot.
In addition if you spend more than 500€ with us, we will be happy to reimburse your day return fare booked through SeaFrance, so please remember to bring along your receipt.
It’s so easy, it’s fun and it’s less expensive than going shopping even a few miles away in London.
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This Year’s Top Quality Boursot Events
You do not need to bring a dictionary: all our lunches and dinners are held in English! And as a Boursot’s customer, SeaFrance will grant you special 36 hour crossing rates so do please ask us first.
Please contact us to book now for any of our events below.
Boursot’s next major Wine Dinner will be on Saturday 24th April at the nearby Hôtel Château Tilques with the vineyard owner and winemaker Gilles Ferran from Domaine des Escaravailles in Rasteau, the village next door to Châteauneuf du Pape. Gilles is something of a legend in the southern Rhône, producing some exquisite wines with which you have probably become familiar already. He has put serious Côtes du Rhône back on the map and despite having been highly rated by the American wine writer Robert Parker, his wines still offer very good value for money.
If you like the variety of rich red and white wines of the Rhône, you will love this evening when you will be meeting the man who makes some of the area’s best wines. We expect to start the evening trying several wines side by side, before moving through to the four course dinner which will be accompanied by at least six wines. Gilles will be talking about his area and how he makes his outstanding wines, and we are also expecting him to show off examples from some of his neighbours in the villages of Roaix, Cairanne and Châteauneuf du Pape.
It is always a treat to have a top winemaker at our dinners and I know that Gilles Ferran will provide us with an evening of good humour, great food and excellent wines. Tickets are priced at a very reasonable all-inclusive 79€ (around £70 at today’s rate) and for your stay at the château we have managed to secure substantially reduced rates of 159€ per room with breakfast included: just let us know you room requirement and we’ll take care of it for you.
This dinner will also provide you with the perfect opportunity to come and stock up on your favourite wines at low French prices and as usual after such an event, our shop will be open on that Sunday morning.
Friday 2nd, Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th July: Main Square Festival, Arras
If you enjoy rock festivals, this Festival in the beautiful square of Arras is one of the finest and most accessible. Acts include Pink, Jamiroquai, The Black Eyed Peas, Pearl Jam, Stereophonics, Gossip and so the list goes on. With prices starting at 59€ per day or a 3 day pass at 135€, you can easily appreciate the savings over equivalent festivals in Britain. Arras is just an hour south of Calais so come and enjoy the change of scenery - and don’t forget to stock up on our wines on your way back!
Sunday 11th July, La Fete de la Belle Roze: Lunch at Hotel Clément
Ardres became famous in June 1520 when the two kings Henry VIII of England and François 1st of France met, trying to outshine each other with their riches, in the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Ardres was then a fortified border town between the kingdoms of France, Spain and England and in July 1653 when Louis XIV was on the French throne, the Spaniards planned to destroy this important garrison town; however their efforts were thwarted by a young girl, La Belle Roze, whose heroic actions to this day are celebrated every two years by this summer fête.
The centre of the town comes alive with market stalls, a fun fair, pageantry and street processions with the famous giants of Ardres.
We combine these celebrations with the opportunity to enjoy our informal mid-summer lunch at Ardres’ old-fashioned Hotel Clément with its good food. This mid-summer event is just 49€ per person to include as always four courses, six wines, water, coffee and a sparkling talk from me about the current state of affairs in the wine world! Similar in style to our Christmas lunch, this is a good fun day out.
Saturday 25th September: Dinner with Martin Krajewski of Château de Sours
Last September Martin Krajewski hosted an evening with some wonderful wines and entertainment for us at Hôtel Château Tilques near Saint-Omer and so positive was the reaction that we have decided to run another dinner with his various wines this September.
To explain “his various wines”, Martin a few years ago acquired Château de Sours which is acknowledged to produce one of Bordeaux’s great rosé wines; he has also bought Clos Cantenac, a Grand Cru château in Saint Emilion which, through rigorous selection, produces some very long-lived wines from the specific terroir in this area of the “right bank”; and as if that were not enough, Martin has started the Songlines Estate in Australia’s McLaren Vale where he and John Duval, the former winemaker of Penfold’s legendary Grange Hermitage, are crafting a wine that has already been described as the “Latour of Australia” (that’s Château Latour not Louis Latour of course, before you ask!).
With this evening of stimulating company, we will be enjoying four courses and at least six great wines from these different estates with our reception and dinner. At an all-in price of 73€ per person (around £65 at today’s rate), you can see that this offers amazing value and as always we have blocked off a number of bedrooms at the château to complete your getaway experience! Our substantially reduced rate is 159€ per room with breakfast included.
Saturday 16th October: Boursot’s Anniversary Weekend
Boursot’s Wine Collection was launched in 2006 so this will be our 4th Anniversary Weekend and as always it will be a weekend that revolves around enjoyment.
On the Saturday afternoon there will be a Cheese and Chocolate Tasting in our vaulted cellars: do you know your French chocolates from your Belgian chocolates? There will also be several local cheeses for you to sample. Madame Dumont who runs the excellent little delicatessen in Ardres will be on hand to take you through the several differences, and can obviously supply you directly if you should wish to buy.
There will also be a Wine Tasting all afternoon at our shop, from the cheaper end of the scale to some of the finer Grand Crus of Burgundy or Saint-Emilion.
For those of you who are interested in the long history of Ardres, there will be conducted tours of underground Ardres (which will be free of charge to you as a customer). To my knowledge there is only one other town in the whole of France that has the ancient underground silos and bastions that can be found in Ardres.
And so, then to dinner at the Hotel Atlantic in Wimereux. This is always a very special event in our calendar and this year, I am delighted to tell you that our guest speaker will be journalist and broadcaster Simon Hoggart. As you may know, Simon was chairman of Radio 4’s comedy show “The News Quiz” over 13 years, he writes the daily Parliamentary Sketch column in the Guardian, he writes on wine in The Spectator and what’s even more relevant, he has recently written “Life’s Too Short To Drink Cheap Wine” (and who could possibly disagree with that?).
I am sure that Simon Hoggart needs no introduction but in case you should be wavering, you can be assured of a highly entertaining evening.
Tickets for this Gourmet Dinner served up with four courses of some of the finest cuisine and washed down with six of our most interesting wines will be, as last year, at 96€ per person (around £85) to include everything. We have reserved a number of rooms at the Atlantic so please ask if you would like to stay there – rooms will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Saturday 6th November: An Audience with Faiveley
The 185 year old Burgundy house of Faiveley in Nuits Saint-Georges has effected some big changes recently. In 1976 François Faveley took over the reins of the company from his father Guy and in so doing, he lowered vine yields and introduced such revolutionary processes as a wind tunnel to dry grapes before they were crushed. One could say that François brought in a more scientific approach to the making of the wine that carried his family name.
In December 2004, François handed over the running of the company to his 25 year old son, Erwan who, after business school, worked in Philadelphia and Paris. Inexperience has not appeared to be a hurdle, and Faiveley has recently acquired additional vineyards, new pressing and fermenting equipment as well as a new source for its barrels. And to help put together all these new ingredients, Faiveley has attracted one of Burgundy’s top winemakers to make all their wines from their generic Burgundy up to their Grand Cru Cortons and Montrachets.
The transformation at the house has been impressive and has led to wines with even more purity of fruit than previously and with softer tannins. This is an impressive story that will be recounted to us on our evening by Philippe Ochin, director of Faiveley in Nuits Saint-Georges. I have known bluegrass playing and Harley Davidson riding Philippe for over 20 years and he is a passionate Burgundian. He has agreed to introduce several of his new wines at a pre-dinner tasting and may well surprise you by inverting the “rules” of tasting!
Burgundy is one of France’s most complex viticultural regions but with Philippe’s help, you will come to understand and appreciate some of its wines from one of Burgundy’s very finest producers.
We expect to hold this prestigious dinner at one of the most famous hotels of the area, the Westminster in Le Touquet (and don’t forget to bring your golf clubs!). Tickets will be 95€ per person to include everything - the tasting, a lavish 4 course dinner and all wines and entertainment.
Sunday 12th December, Christmas Market: Lunch at Hotel Clément.
We are of course flattered that some of you have already booked for our 2010 Christmas lunch which has become the fun highlight of the year. Last year rather than spoon more people into the lunch, we had to turn people away after the numbers got to 60, so this year if you would like to guarantee your places, we can happily take your bookings now.
That morning the annual Turkey Festival in the village of Licques will be held about 20 minutes away, and then I suggest you come to the lunch and then “do” the Christmas Market in the afternoon, when our spirits and the general atmosphere have warmed up! Père Noël is normally to be found abseiling down the church spire at around 6pm. The lunch comprises four courses and six wines at a price of just 49€ per person all-inclusive. It is a great inexpensive day out and accommodation can of course be arranged for you, should you wish to stay over.
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News in the World of Wine
Of course the dreary news over the last few days has been of the Chancellor’s Budget. The latest diktat adds yet another 10p to a bottle of wine (or 38p to a bottle of spirit), meaning that the tax on wine in Britain has increased by more than 25% over the last two years. On top of that the darling chancellor has planned to raise wine duty by a further 2% above inflation each year until 2013.
Each time the government raises duty, of course it helps us here in Ardres as more and more people realise that not only do they get so much more wine for their money here but they also get a better choice of good quality French wines than is so often found in the UK.
As usual the Chancellor has done nothing for the healthy majority of people who simply enjoy a glass or two of wine as one of life’s simple pleasures. As we’ve seen many times now, the British government has failed to take on the multinational drinks producers and the supermarkets who continue to intentionally supply “alcohol” at prices that I feel to be, simply, irresponsible. I will be curious to see if the next government, of whichever persuasion, takes on the powerful supermarkets and bans the sale of alcohol, in particular, at below cost. As you may know, in France it is illegal to sell anything at below cost.
Duty and VAT in the UK now amount to around £2 on each bottle of still wine. The UK drinks industry suffered badly in 2009 with around 30,000 job losses, and among my wine retailing friends and contacts in Britain, nobody is positive about the current market and sadly I believe there will be further thinning out of the Trade this year.
With some retailers’ obsessions with magic price points of £3.99, £4.99 et al, the passing back up the supply chain of these tax increases will add consternation to those producers who are not desperate to unload excess wine at any price. Producers are less and less inclined to subsidise the finances of British supermarkets and are looking to refocus their sales efforts in Asia where there are not currently the same demands and where they can sell profitably.
The en primeur tastings of 2009 Bordeaux are in progress as I write, and judging by the reactions of those wine journalists present, the liquid fruit of 2009 is turning out to be of very high quality. Some pundits had hoped that prices would be reduced which would take into account difficult global trading conditions, but I think it’s unlikely that prices will be reduced at all as the quality is so high. It will be a “major” vintage in which speculators invest. If you should wish to do this, giving your money to a company two years before you receive the wines, I stress that you should only use trustworthy and financially sound companies.
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Boursot’s New List
As always you can see our new list on this link and if you would like to print it, it's available on this link.
This month, our two wonderful Beaujolais wines, Brouilly and Morgon Corcelette have arrived fresh from the excellent new harvest 2009. Comte Philippe de la Poype tells me that these are the best wines he has ever produced, and tasting these I was immediately struck by their intensity and indeed their potential to keep for a few more years yet, although I’m not sure who would give them such a chance. They’re utterly delicious now and show off what can be achieved by good producers in this viticultural area.
A major new addition this month is a delicious new sparkling wine, Charles de Fère, Tradition Brut from the Burgundy region, which I have decided to highlight this month in our Offer below.
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April Offer
Once in a while, I come across some inexpensive wines and find that they do offer spectacular value for money, as with for instance our highly acclaimed red, white and pink Petit Pont, Réserve wines at 3,30€ (under £3). Not that I am asking for sympathy, the trouble is that to select one wine, I usually have to taste and reject around 40 other candidates – there is so much (at best) indifferent wine available on today’s market, as well as so much overpriced liquid from some very serious “names” purporting to be something they clearly are not.
Recently I came across a delicious sparkling wine made by the classic Méthode Traditionnelle, Charles de Fère, Tradition, Brut from Burgundy and I feel that this can now join the ranks of our great tasting but inexpensive wines. Packaged in the classic champagne style, it’s made entirely from chardonnay (so you could call it a Blanc de Blancs) and aged for a very respectable 15 months. When I heard the price I thought there must have been a mistake; but no, it was correct. I believe that the quality of this bubbly will bowl you over – it’s of course delicious to drink by itself, but it’s also at a great price if you are mixing in fruit or fruit juice. Its normal price is 6,40€ but for April, we are offering it to you at a special launch price of 5,50€ (just under a fiver) per bottle.
As always with our Offers, you can reserve your requirements for collection at a later date. Please let us know what you’d like on ardres@boursot.co.uk and receipt of your order will be acknowledged.
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General
You may not be surprised to hear that, contrary to the general trend in the Pas de Calais area, both our sales volumes and average customer spends are increasing which is of course encouraging. Wine is of course one of the shopping items that still continues to be considerably less expensive here in France than in the UK. The reason for this is simply that there is next to no excise duty here – you are not giving almost £2 per bottle straight to HM Customs & Excise as you do in Britain. It is simply wrong to say that it’s not worth crossing the channel any more because of the euro: wine is still way outside the impact of the exchange rate! For instance, our prices start with a very reasonable and gluggable Minervois at 2,40€ which even at today’s rate is around £2.20.
People frequently tell me about the beleaguered offerings of French wines on offer at British retailers, and notably in British supermarkets which have reacted to the recession by cutting the choices available. I should hardly need to remind you that “mass retailing” is exclusively about making profit whereas buying your wine from smaller retailers enables you to build a relationship and thereby a mutual trust. Usually you can taste the wines and often there are wine related events such as Gourmet Dinners that give you an opportunity to expand your vinous horizons. Of course we smaller retailers want to make profit but first and foremost we want to see you back and so we need to keep you happy. We do not have carrots and toothpaste whose budgets we can rob when our wine sales are less than rosy.
Mind you, I am preaching to you as the already converted and you know that coming over is also about getting away for a complete change of pace, having a great lunch and then shopping for all those various items that you can only find in French shops and supermarkets. I suspect that as campaigning for the General Election heats up, you may feel it necessary to escape for a day.
For the moment, I think it safe to say that we’re all awaiting the announcement of the General Election date and then with luck shortly afterwards we will all know whether Britain is facing left or right. Then presumably there will have to be an emergency Budget shortly after the Election which is likely to add even more fiscal pain to your wine buying in Britain. But not of course if you buy your wines in France!
I hope to see you here again very shortly, especially now that you have SeaFrance’s fantastic new offer (click those words) of just £20 for a day return! As other Offers unfold, I will of course keep you in the picture.
Have a good Easter break – if you should be at a loose end, I shall be here in the Ardres shop on Good Friday and Saturday in the normal way but if you prefer to come on Easter Monday, please telephone in advance to arrange it.
With all my best wishes to you
With my best wishes
Guy
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Guy Boursot
Wine Consultants SARL
Boursot's Wine Collection
9 Rue de l'Arsenal
62610 ARDRES
+33 3 21 36 81 46
www.boursot.co.uk
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