Newsletters
 August, 2008
Dear Customer,
Our newsletters are unfashionably verbose, so if you prefer to flick to a particular topic, the main headings are below.
Our newsletters are unfashionably verbose, so if you prefer to flick to a
particular topic, the main headings are below.
Cross Channel Deals
Our inexpensive fares across the channel are available to you as a customer
of Boursot's Wine Collection. Until the end of August this fare is just £27
with SeaFrance. As you will appreciate, space on the boats is at a premium
during this holiday period, so we are lucky to have got this favourable rate
for you.
This special rate is bookable ONLY by telephoning 0870 264 2644 and quoting
our special code "Boursot". In addition, during August come here and spend
more than 600 euros (around £472 at present rates) in one transaction and we
will pay for your ferry crossing. To take advantage of this specific Offer,
please contact us before booking so we can tell you the process.
Many things are much cheaper in France and this is certainly the time to
make colossal savings on the prices being charged in the UK - especially on
wine - and enjoy a great and inexpensive day out at the same time. Escape
to enjoy!
These offers might also be attractive to those of your friends who are
planning large parties, such as weddings, so please do pass this on to any
of your friends or colleagues who might be interested.
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Calendar of Events
Saturday 11th and 12th October sees our Anniversary Weekend. This weekend
will comprise wine events such as a Wine Masterclass, Conducted Overground
and Underground Tours of Historic Ardres, an all-day wine tasting and a
spectacular Gourmet Dinner, as below.
If you haven't managed to get to this weekend previously, this could be your
opportunity to look around 17th century Ardres with its underground silos
and bastions and its historic architecture, as well as to be introduced to
several different aspects of the wine business.
As with all our events, we are happy to help you find local accommodation -
please ask us.
Saturday 11 October: Anniversary Gourmet Dinner at Hotel l'Atlantic,
Wimereux
I am delighted to be able to say now that our Guest Speaker at this dinner
will be the chairman and co-founder of the major Burgundy house, Olivier
Leflaive based in the village of Puligny-Montrachet.
Patrick, brother of Olivier, Leflaive is an erudite and entertaining speaker
(in English of course!). From their launch in 1984, Olivier and Patrick
have grown their company to a volume of 800,000 bottles across 40 major
markets around the world. In addition, the company Olivier Leflaive Frères
is set to increase its top quality portfolio by buying more vineyards in
Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru, Les Folatières; Chevalier-Montrachet Grand
Cru; Bienvenues-Bâtard Grand Cru and Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru. Olivier
Leflaive is a success story and I shall encourage Patrick to talk about his
company's development over the last 20 years to it being one of the most
respected names in the Burgundy marketplace.
Tickets: 110 euros per person to include 5 courses, all wines, water and
coffee.
Saturday 8 November: Gourmet Dinner at Restaurant Le Channel, Calais
Speaker: Robin Butler, the world's leading dealer in antiques for the wine
enthusiast, will be talking about the role of wine accessories as part of
the overall enjoyment of wine.
We may be assured of a wonderful and highly entertaining evening at arguably
Calais' finest restaurant.
Tickets: 90 euros per person to include 4 courses, all wines, water and
coffee.
Sunday 14 December: Christmas Market in Ardres. Informal Sunday Lunch at
Hotel Clément
Christmas in Europe! The Ardres market with all its stalls starts on the
Sunday morning and when darkness falls, you can see Père Noël abseiling down
the church!
Speaker: Guy Boursot
Tickets: 49 euros per person to include 4 courses, all wines, water and
coffee.
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Bio-Dynamic Wines
Many of you will have heard me banging on about the mystery of bio-dynamic
wines which, put crudely, might be described as "supercharged organic" wines
and indeed some of you may have read
my interview with Christine Saurel of Montirius, the famous bio-dynamic
vineyard that produces high quality Vacqueyras and Gigondas in the Rhône.
With bio-dynamic wines, all the processes from the treatment of soil and
vines (natural of course!) through to bottling are effected according to the
moon's phases etc. Mumbo jumbo perhaps - we just don't know, but there is
a growing band of leading vineyards all over the world that is turning to
bio-dynamic principles, swearing that the wines taste better as a result.
Anyhow, to the point... arguably the UK's most prolific author on organic
and bio-dynamic wines is a very affable guy called Monty Waldin, who can be
seen on Channel 4 from September with a new wine series which promises to be
both interesting and different. I shall look forward to hearing your
views.
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Cross-Channel Trading and Wine News
I have to admit to having been nervous about our business in the early
months of 2008. Long planned restoration works to this historic building
were taking place as sales dipped unexpectedly. It seemed that the British
media were succeeding in depressing people, and traffic across the channel
dipped below that of previous years. As you can imagine, we get to feel the
effects of the UK media here too!
But over the past three months this trend has reversed and now all
cross-channel operators are seeing significant growth in their figures. It
seems that many people have adapted and as seen in previous recessions, when
economic times get tough, people want real value for money. And whilst it
may have been popular to say that Europe and its euro was expensive, various
purchases on this side of the water still offer excellent value compared to
the UK - one look at our new Wine List
will confirm this!
We are sticking to our fundamental principles of guaranteed quality at great
prices, and it is for this prime reason that more and more people are being
recommended to us and that our sales continue to rise. Combine that with a
pleasurable day out, perhaps with an inexpensive lunch on the lakes here in
Ardres, and a day of gentle shopping, and it is not hard to see why the
ferry operators are enjoying a boom time.
In the UK, the independent wine merchants continue to gain business at the
expense of the high street mass retailers. People are more discerning, want
advice and appear to me to be tiring of less than transparent pricing
policies.
After last year's losses of £8.6 million, Oddbins has finally been sold this
week for "an undisclosed sum" to specialist wine retailer "Ex Cellar". The
logic of the Castel Group, France's biggest wine company and behind such
wine brands as Malesan (Bordeaux), to buy it in the first place in 2002 was
not clear, as it looked set to clash with another strong high street brand,
Nicolas, that Castel already owned.
Combine with that the fact that when Seagram previously owned Oddbins,
Seagram also owned several major wine and spirit brands, so the financial
plausibility of such a retail chain was more clear. However, the various
wine interests were sold off in different directions, so that it became no
longer possible to combine the large margins gained at production level with
a more meagre retail margin.
I believe that Oddbins' finest hours were in its early days when its quirky
stores had young enthusiastic Aussies and Kiwis who were paid next to
nothing but were contagiously passionate about what they were selling.
I hope the new owners bought the company at a sensible price and wish them
luck in re-finding a sense of direction for good old Oddbins.
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Delivery of our Wines to your Door
After what seems like an eternity of waiting for responses to our official
requests to deliver our wines to your door, it seems that now we have the
green light to effect this.
As you probably know, if you do not travel with your goods bought from
another European state, the rules state that duty must be paid in the
country of destination. UK duty is currently £1.48 per bottle before VAT
and this together with our costs of transport, delivery and VAT total £3.50
per bottle delivered from here to your doorstep.
This will clearly not work on some wines where the saving by coming here may
only be £2 per bottle in the first place. Many of our wines cannot as yet
be found in the UK, so if you have run a little short and simply need to top
up, this service is now available to you - all perfectly legitimately. In
addition, our champagnes are available through this means and here with
initial savings of £7 to £10 per bottle, you can still save yourself a huge
amount of money by having the cases delivered to your door.
We are establishing a stock of some selected wines in the UK with our agreed
distributor, and once the systems are in place, you will be able to order
our wines for delivery to your home within 5 working days. It is planned
that all this will be visible soon on our website, as well as a complete
ordering system. But for now, please call or e-mail with your orders, and
we shall be pleased to advise you.
Minimum order is 48 bottles, mixed as required.
We view this as a top-up service for your wine requirements. Clearly the
best, and most fun, way to buy continues to be to come here and stock up and
you can take your purchases back to the UK at the very low French, virtually
duty-free, prices.
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Exceptional Closure
It looks likely that unfortunately our Ardres shop will have to remain
closed on Saturday 23rd August. We apologise in advance but hope that those
of you who had been thinking of coming that day, might be able to make it on
a different day.
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Our E-mail addresses
As advised some months ago, some of our e-mail addresses are changing -
indeed our old Tiscali addresses will now bounce back to you! This is due
in France to Tiscali's alliance with Italia Telecom's Alice. So in case you
had thought to contact us, our new private addresses are:-
wine.consultants@aliceadsl.fr
and
guy.boursot@aliceadsl.fr
In addition, you can always use our main address
ardres@boursot.co.uk - they all get here!
That's about all for this month. I look forward to seeing you all again
here in the not too distant future. In the meantime, enjoy the summer!
With all best wishes
Guy
Guy Boursot
Wine Consultants SARL
Boursot’s Wine Collection
9 Rue de l’Arsenal
62610 ARDRES, France
Tel: +33 321 36 81 46
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