Newsletters
 August, 2010
Dear Customer,
Bonjour!
Our newsletters can be unfashionably verbose, so if you prefer to go straight to a particular topic, the main headings are below.
Boursot's Reduced Cross Channel Fares
As a Boursot's Wine Collection customer you should take advantage of our special arrangement with SeaFrance whereby you can get a special day return crossing fare for just £20 for your car and all passengers Sundays to Fridays, or £25 on Saturdays. These are available to you for the rest of 2010 - and that includes during the high season.
In addition, I am delighted to announce that SeaFrance have agreed to a 36 hour return of just £30 (£35 for Saturdays) for you as a Boursot customer.
These customer-only offers are not visible on our website but 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 to 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.
In case you didn't know it already, I should also point out that Tesco clubcard points can be exchanged for Eurotunnel tickets.
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Boursot's Hotel Offer
It is probably true to say that about three or four years ago, the 4 star Hôtel Château Tilques between here and Saint-Omer, was overly crowded with Brits and the consequence of that was that the hotel's quality and value seemed to slip.
Now, things are very different as those of you who have been to our Gourmet Evenings there can testify, and we have no hesitation in recommending the hotel and its restaurant. The food is great, the service is impeccable and the bedrooms are characterful, light and spacious. With its idyllic setting, and proximity to the bustling and pretty town of Saint-Omer with its historic cathedral, I can't think of a much better combination for an easy and tranquil getaway for a night or two.
As a Boursot's Wine Collection customer, you can get reduced rates of 129€ per room Sundays to Fridays and 159€ for Saturday nights; these prices are per night for two people, including breakfast and are offered subject to availability. When booking, please mention Boursot to get your special rates.
Also between Monday and Friday, if you'd like to eat in the Brasserie du Parc, Chateau Tilques' attractive conservatory, you will be offered a free kir - again, provided you mention Boursot's Wine Collection!
Don't forget, by the way, that we have a list of local hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, golf clubs and places of interest on our website under the Local Info button from our Home Page - or directly here.
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This Year's Boursot Events
All our lunches and dinners are held in English. Vegetarian and alternative food options can be arranged, provided we receive notice at the time of booking. Please contact us on ardres@boursot.co.uk or on +33 321 36 81 46 to book for any of our events below.
On a sad note, Ardres' Hotel Clément has now closed down and so the Christmas event we had planned to hold there has now been transferred to the Hotel Le Relais situated on the green in Ardres: reasonably priced, good food, cosy dining room and simple rooms. If you'd like any further information, please do get in touch with us. The Relais even has a website on www.lerelais-ardres.com !
Owing to unforeseen circumstances the Château de Sours dinner, originally planned for September, has had to be postponed until Spring next year. We will let you know the new date as soon as it's available.
Saturday 16th October: Boursot's Anniversary Weekend
Boursot's Wine Collection, launched in 2006, celebrates its 4th Anniversary this year and as always the Anniversary Weekend will involve several enjoyable events.
During 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, or your Maroilles from your Pont l'Evèque? Madame Dumont who runs the excellent little delicatessen in Ardres will be on hand to lead you through the various differences, and obviously she will be very happy to supply you directly if you should wish to buy any cheese or chocolates.
There will also be a Wine Tasting all afternoon in our shop, from the cheaper end of the scale to some of the finer Grand Crus of Burgundy or Saint-Emilion. Both the tastings will of course be free of charge.
For those of you who are interested in the long history of Ardres, there will be conducted tours of underground Ardres (which will also 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 such historic underground silos and bastions as can be found in Ardres.
And so, then to Boursot's Anniversary Dinner at the Hotel Atlantic in Wimereux. This year our guest speaker will be journalist and broadcaster Simon Hoggart. As you may remember, Simon was chairman of BBC Radio 4's comedy show "The News Quiz" over 13 years, he writes the daily Parliamentary Sketch column in the Guardian and he writes on wine in The Spectator. What's even more relevant is that 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 further introduction but in case you should be wavering, you can be assured of a highly entertaining evening and we recommend that you book as soon as possible.
Tickets for this Gourmet Dinner served up with four courses of the famous Hotel Atlantic's finest cuisine and washed down with six of our most interesting wines are, as last year, priced at 96€ per person (around £79) to include everything. We have now filled the Atlantic's bedrooms but there are plenty of other hotel rooms within easy walking distance - such as the Hotel Saint-Jean and the Hotel du Centre. Please ask if you need any help in booking a room.
Saturday 6th November: An Audience with Faiveley at Les Jardins de la Matelote
The 185 year old Burgundy house of Faiveley in Nuits Saint-Georges is one of the most respected producers in Burgundy, and it has effected some big changes recently. In 1976 François Faiveley 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's 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 all the way 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 interesting development that will be recounted to us on our evening by Philippe Ochin, director of Faiveley in Nuits Saint-Georges. He has agreed to introduce several of his "new" wines at a tasting before dinner 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 finest producers. We expect this to be one of our most enjoyable dinners yet held.
We will dine in the country manor Les Jardins de la Matelote, just outside Boulogne which, as the name implies, belongs to the Michelin starred La Matelote of Boulogne with the cuisine provided by chef owner Tony Lestienne. Mr. Lestienne and I have spent some time discussing menus to accompany our choice of fine Burgundies, and I am convinced that this will be a first-class evening of excellent food and exceptional Burgundies.
The ticket price for this dinner will be 89€ (around £73) per person to include everything - a tasting of several Faiveley Burgundies, a lavish 4 course dinner, 6 wines and all entertainment - in a most beautiful setting.
We have blocked off a number of bedrooms at the nearby Hotel La Matelote in Boulogne, and have arranged that you be upgraded to a superior room at a reasonable 125€ (around £104 at today's rate) per room, breakfast included. There are also several other hotels in Boulogne and Wimereux (which are 5 minutes apart from each other). Please let us know your room requirement and we will liaise with the hotel on your behalf.
Sunday 12th December, Christmas Market: Lunch at Hotel Le Relais, Ardres.
Our Christmas lunch is 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 will be held about 20 minutes away in the village of Licques, and then I suggest you come to the lunch and then "do" the Christmas Market in the afternoon, by which time our spirits and the general atmosphere will 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 in Ardres, should you wish to stay over.
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News in the World of Wine
It is always of interest to me as a wine writer and presenter to observe and pass on to you what appears to be happening in the global market.
Finally it seems that in Britain something is going to be done about the selling of alcohol below cost price by some of the supermarkets in particular. There has been a lot of hypocritical waffle recently meted out (anything for a headline) in the media by one or two of these players and one can only hope that the present government does succeed in its ambitions of banning such sales. I, for one, do not feel confident of much improvement if these all-powerful retailers and their "Associations" have a hand in defining cost price and thereby to conclude what is legal or not. It is perfectly normal for mass retailers to pass back costs and charges to their suppliers and to demand what is shown, and more particularly what is not shown, on their suppliers' invoices. Time should tell.
In Calais, there was always an agreement between Sainsburys and Tesco Vin Plus that if one of them should close, then the other would close shortly after. Sainsburys operated its unit as a joint venture with supermarket chain Auchan and so when it decided to close, staff members were relocated to Auchan. Tesco then announced that it would close, despite there having been an independent auditor's report opining that there was no reason to close as its sales had increased by 10% over the last 12 months and that Tesco's rent had been substantially reduced in 2010. The unions are now picking over the bones of the resulting mess of the recent Tesco closure, although any actions will not see the reopening of its doors in Cité Europe.
These were a couple of the flagships of the old downmarket "booze cruise", in which thousands of customers would arrive each day to stock up on their favourite tipples, notably the major wine and beer brands. To give you an idea of scale, in 1998 "personal importation" accounted for around 20% of all wine and beer consumed in UK homes and was worth in excess of £460 million per annum! However very few retailers from those heady days adapted their business models to take account of changing trends in consumer demand, so it is not surprising that some of them have closed and that parts of the media are now gleefully trumpeting "the end of the booze cruise".
You will probably remember those days of "Buy a copy of the Daily Snail and travel to France for £1" - a device used to promote newspaper sales, but it was sad that the whole essence of "booze cruise" led to the peddling of low quality. When I was researching this market in around 1999/2000, I could see that there was still a large and untapped market of people wanting to buy good wines at low French prices. I moved over here in 2001 to start one of the first decent wine shops of the area and believe that that initiative has proven to be correct, and that also that market is still growing and not declining.
The consumer world has changed a lot over the last 15 years. People are much more aware of quality and value now, and this has served us well although the exchange rate between the pound and the euro tried hard to depress our sales - without much success - as the savings on wine are still far greater than any costs related to exchange rates. The reason for this is simple: there is so much (and soon maybe more?) tax applied to a bottle of wine bought in the UK. Often, too, there are less transport costs and there is no additional percentage going to an importing agent.
But you know this already: for example Pol Roger champagne £34 at Waitrose in the UK, £22.80 here - the list of savings could go on …and on. It is patently incorrect when some newspapers go on to say that there are no savings to be had by shopping in France!
Our business continues to improve. We are told regularly that we have so much more exciting a selection of French wines than can be found generally in Britain and this, together with our huge savings over UK prices, has led to our increasing sales volumes. Which brings me neatly onto the next topic…
It is time for us to take on additional staff to work with me in our Ardres shop and I thought you might know someone who could be interested in working in the wine trade and who might like to learn or to practice French? Inevitably in this sort of work, there is some heavy lifting involved but the right person would assume many of the day to day responsibilities of managing the shop and there is scope for much personal development within the company. If you should know of anyone of any age whom you believe could be interested, please ask him to drop me an e-mail on ardres@boursot.co.uk.
Whilst I appreciate that is seems premature to talk about this year's harvest around France, 2010 quality prospects look to be shaping up well. In Bordeaux, June and July were very hot and at one stage, there were fears that these conditions might have produced another year such as 2003 - a small crop producing super-ripe wines with no great potential longevity. But since then, the outlook has improved and some growers are already feeling confident of (another) year of high quality. Quite what happens to 2009 prices if 2010 produces another "vintage of the decade" waits to be seen!
July's fine weather has helped harvest prospects all around France with very few exceptions. In some areas there has been a problem with "coulure" which leads to malformed grapes and where this has occurred, it will inevitably lead to a harvest of reduced quantity.
In Champagne some optimism is returning as a result of increased sales, and permitted yields for 2010 have been raised by 8% over last year's harvest. However, whilst many smaller producers are in a healthy and happy position, many of the larger Houses are still licking their wounds as a result of last year's rapid deceleration in sales. As I have said here before, one problem in Champagne is simply the amount of time (an average of three years) it takes to make and age a bottle of champagne so producers have to try and predict market conditions a long time in advance. Any unexpected acceleration or deceleration in the market can produce sharp price increases or promotional "activity" to correct the sales flow.
Also I have written here previously about the wine glut all over the world, but especially of that in Australia. The 2010 harvest may prove to be a turning point for Australia: it was 12% reduced in volume over its 2009 crop and at the same time, around 10,000 hectares of vines had been grubbed up over the last 12 months. Supply is coming much closer to current demand.
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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.
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August Offer
Until the end of this month, we are extending the Special Offer on the wines of Château de Sours
situated just outside Saint-Emilion in Bordeaux. Whilst the château is arguably best known for its rosés, it also produces some excellent whites and reds. The Offer has sold reasonably well but there are still a few bin-end vintages available, which we are offering you at next to giveaway prices!
These wines are of course offered to you on a first-come, first-served basis. All these wines will remain good for some time yet, but we need to make way for new vintages. If you should like to know any further information about these wines on offer, please do contact me.
You can forget the so-called "special offers" of certain UK retailers who are promoting Château de Sours Rosé at "just £8.99" - look at our price of 5,50€ (around £4.50 at today's rate) to see what real value means!
Château de Sours White
Made from 50% Sauvignon and 50% Sémillon that have been lightly oaked, this dry wine has exotic fresh and fruity aromas. And at this price, you are getting exceptional value.
| Château de Sours, Bordeaux, 2006 | 5,40€ per bottle (normally 8,30€) |
Château de Sours Rosé
The château's regular rosé is made from 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and is full of dry soft fruit - perfect for summer drinking. All of these wines will remain good to enjoy for another 12 months, at least. I would particularly like to draw your attention to the La Source, the superior wine of Château de Sours which is fabulous at the moment: come and taste it. Fuller notes of these rosés, as a PDF, can be found on this link.
| Château de Sours, Bordeaux, 2008 | 5,50€ per bottle (normally 6,90€) |
| Château de Sours, Bordeaux, 2007 in magnums | 5,70€ per magnum |
| La Source du Château de Sours, Bordeaux, 2008 | 6,50€ per bottle (was 8,50€) |
Château de Sours Red
Made from 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, these wines are soft and rich in style - both wines are ready for drinking and are really easy to appreciate.
| Château de Sours, Bordeaux, 2004 | 5,50€ per bottle |
| Château de Sours, Bordeaux, 2002 | 5,80€ 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.
I hope to see you here again very shortly, especially now that you have SeaFrance's fantastic new offer (click those words) on both day and overnight return fares!
With all my best wishes to you,
Yours sincerely
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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