Newsletters
 December, 2008
Dear Customer,
Our newsletters are unfashionably verbose, so if you prefer to go straight to a particular topic, the main headings are below.
My apologies for the delay in sending out this newsletter but we do seem to have been pretty busy recently, which has come as a welcome change after some quiet weeks whilst people were deciding how best to adjust to the new turmoil of the economic world.
Our Value
More and more people are coming to Ardres to buy their wines as a result of your referrals, for which I thank you, and to confirm what real value means in their wine purchasing.
People often tell us that they are fed up with the bland and overpriced offerings being made by the UK’s mass retailers (even after their so called 50% (rip-)off deals) and that they enjoy the complete experience of getting away to France for the day .
Even after the pound’s recent slide against the euro, the price differences on wine between France and Britain are still enormous. These new exchange rates are already finding their way into the UK supply chain of non-British goods and consequently wine prices in Britain can be expected to rise shortly. Additionally the pre-Budget statement, whilst announcing a 2.5% temporary reduction in VAT, has added £0.13 more duty to a bottle of wine. As I calculate it, this will have the effect of a net price increase on all wines retailing in the UK at under £5 per bottle.
Meanwhile across the 23 miles of the channel, Boursot’s Wine Collection has had some favourable press recently and as if by confirmation of what we have been saying for some time, one new customer recently said “via an internet search where I could find in the UK the identical wines that you stock, by buying from you we saved at least £5 per bottle and that’s based upon the current awful exchange rate.” (JM).
So what JM was saying was that by buying just one case would save her at least £60; the cost of her day return was £28 (she would have paid less through our Offer!), petrol from London, say £40, so buying an average of five cases, one could still save, net, around £230! It’s not difficult to see the economic sense in buying here - the mathematics say it all.
As you can see from our Latest List, our quality wines start at the equivalent of £2.40 – if these were sold in the UK, they would most likely be sold at £4.99 (or should I say “£9.99 but to you dear customer, we have a Limited Special Offer of 50% off”!).
So if you are thinking of making economies, what better and more enjoyable way than to come to France for the day with one of our specially priced ferry offers and stock up on the various items that are still so much less expensive than they are in the UK? Another recent testimonial was “…we enjoyed coming to your lovely shop, tasting a few wines followed by lunch (how does Le Relais manage 3 courses at 13 euros?). I calculated we saved ourselves at least £400 but more than that we enjoyed the experience and it was a good change from all the dreary news back home.” (CW)
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Hotel Promotion
We are pleased to tell you that we have teamed up with the luxury hotel Château Tilques (click those two words to see their website) just 20 minutes’ drive from our shop in Ardres. Here you can relax over a night or a weekend at advantageous rates through Boursot’s. It’s also a great place for Christmas office parties with a difference.
Restaurant: Château Tilques has recently opened the Brasserie du Parc in its conservatory, where you can enjoy a lunchtime menu of three courses for just 19,90€ and as a Boursot’s Wine Collection customer you will also receive a free kir (per person!).
Rooms: As a mark of our collaboration, Château Tilques is offering Boursot’s customers substantially reduced (approx -30%) rates at 129€ per room with breakfast included Monday to Friday and 159€ for Saturday nights – all of course subject to availability. So please do contact us if you would like to take advantage, as these offers are only available through Boursot’s.
To take advantage of these Offers, please contact the office on ardres@boursot.co.uk.
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Burgundy Promotion
As you will probably know, Olivier Leflaive & Frères in the village of Puligny-Montrachet produce some exquisite and highly reputed Burgundies. Patrick Leflaive, managing director, was our guest speaker at our recent Gourmet Dinner at the Hotel Atlantic in Wimereux and he has kindly agreed to run an exclusive Burgundy promotion with Boursot’s Wine Collection, which I feel to be an honour as they can sell these wines across the world with no difficulty.
This is a “must do” opportunity for Burgundy lovers – where comparable our prices are much lower than Leflaive own agent’s price in the UK, so you can imagine the price differential if you were buying these “retail” in Britain. We encourage you to react quickly as inevitably Burgundy stocks are limited. These wines are offered subject to remaining unsold, and this Offer runs until the end of January 2009.
WHITE BURGUNDY
| Bourgogne Les Sétilles2007 | 11.00€ | £8.80 |
Saint-Romain2006 | 15.79€ | £12.60 |
Auxey-Duresses2006 | 18.00€ | £14.40 |
Chablis 1er Cru, Côte de Léchet2006 | 18.80€ | £15.00 |
Saint-Aubin 1er Cru, En Remilly2006 | 23.60€ | £18.90 |
Meursault, Les Tillets2006 | 31.50€ | £25.20 |
Chassagne-Montrachet2006 | 31.90€ | £25.50 |
Puligny-Montrachet2006 | 34.29€ | £27.40 |
RED BURGUNDY |
Bourgogne, Cuvée Margot2006 | 10.80€ | £8.60 |
Côte de Beaune Villages2004 | 14.20€ | £11.40 |
Chassagne-Montrachet2006 | 19.30€ | £15.40 |
Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru, Les Fichots2005 | 17.54€ | £14.00 |
Pommard2004 | 26.79€ | £21.40 |
Pommard 1er Cru, Les Charmots2002 | 35.00€ | £28.00 |
Pommard 1er Cru, Les Epenots1999 | 43.85€ | £35.10 |
We charge in euros and the sterling price is an approximate guide at 1,25€/£ and rounded to the nearest 10p
For further descriptions of any of these wines, please contact us on ardres@boursot.co.uk.
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Forthcoming Events
Sunday 14th December: Our next event is our Christmas Lunch at the Hotel Clement in Ardres on the town’s Christmas Market day. We shall be closing “ticket” applications for this shortly as we are close to capacity, but if you should still like to attend, please respond soon.
Saturday 31st January at the Hotel Le Relais in Ardres: get away from the January blues with an evening of inexpensive entertainment. On the Saturday evening I shall be hosting a four course dinner, with a minimum of five wines - all for just 49€. I will be giving an entertaining talk on the current trends in the wine world, wearing my other hat as a wine writer. Afterwards you can simply toddle upstairs to sleep at a price of around only 45€ per room!
Saturday 7th March: We shall be hosting a wine dinner at Château Tilques and I am currently looking for a major speaker for this evening - as always this will be an evening of fantastic value. We have managed to obtain for you a substantial discount on the rooms, so you might for instance wish to make a long weekend of it. Fuller details will be announced as soon as they are available. The price of this dinner is expected to be 90€ to include four courses, five wines and all entertainment.
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New to the Boursot List
As dessert wines continue to increase in popularity, we have taken on two new sweet dessert wines – one from Cadillac and the other from Loupiac. Both these appellations are close to Sauternes in Bordeaux, both geographically and in style.
New at Boursot’s are some attractive wine related tea towels, showing maps of Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Languedoc-Roussillon, a vintage chart as well as champagne bottle sizes. These make good presents for your wine loving friends.
We have taken advantage of other retailers’ cancelled orders in the Bordeaux marketplace and so are able to bring back some old friends: Château Saint-Romans (AC Bordeaux), Château Vieux Cros Lamarzelle, (AC Saint-Emilion), Château Loudenne (AC Médoc), Haut-Médoc de Giscours (no prizes for guessing from which appellation!), but I do recommend you react fast with your orders as we will almost certainly not be able to get more of these wines again. We have also secured an interesting parcel of a good quality Médoc, Château Le Monge, 2002 at the great price of the equivalent of under a fiver.
We have added to our small but beautiful selection of spirits a delightful new Crème de Châtaignes (chestnut liqueur) which could go well at this time of the year!
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News in the World of Wine
Lately there have been continuing reports of further health benefits of wine and perhaps the most surprising of these to me was the report of an experiment conducted across 84,000 men in the United States that linked moderate consumption (one or two glasses) of red wine with a lower risk (by as much as 60%) of the development of lung cancer in men. This is thanks to the antioxidant resveratrol that is naturally present in red wine and that emanates from red grape skins. There are of course several proven health benefits in the moderate consumption of wine.
For centuries wine was considered to be a civilising influence but now, lumped together in the same category as the likes of vodka, rum and Tequila, all types of alcohol are set to become the latest government-backed demon because a relatively small number of people use “alcohol” to excess.
There is a curious concerted effort building up across Europe to restrict the promotion and sale of wine as well as all other alcohol. At the risk of sounding like another Grumpy Old Man or NIMBY, what has often puzzled (!) me is why it is that we don’t hear about how the government is going to tackle the multi-national spirits companies responsible for the creation and development of major spirits brands that are specifically and openly targeted at the very people that are the cause of so many of the social problems that the UK government rather lamely “complains” about.
These companies are highly profitable and seem to me to be beyond recourse, so despite words about the problems of youth drinking, government seems to prefer to receive the tax income from these companies’ profits whilst at the same time increasing its duty rates. The average moderate wine drinker has become an easy target for additional tax revenue, as he or she is unlikely to change habits dramatically. As it stands currently, the latest duty increase and temporary cut in VAT hits wines priced at under £5 harder than higher priced wines.
But there are also some more pernicious proposals being trailed currently, coming out of Brussels. Proposals such as the banning of “free” wine tastings (whoever heard of a “boozer” going to a wine tasting to seek drunken stupour?) are finding favour in France as well as in Britain. In France wine producers are, not surprisingly, feeling confused and angry when collectively they already contribute more revenue to the French exchequer than the entire French aerospace industry.
In talking to several producers around France, it seems to me that many are finding the current economic climate very tough and some vineyards, especially in the south, are being forced to close down. 2008 has not been an easy year with its hailstorms, a difficult exchange rate and of course the global economic slowdown.
Even among the major wine brand players, there is trouble too, ranging from Majestic who have reported a slump in profits to the Australian wine giant Fosters Group which has reported an 88% drop in profits as sales of its wines such as Rosemount and Penfolds continue to fall. Fosters’ wine business is worth US$3.2 billion but the company is now looking to unload some of its brands and will announce its intentions before mid-February. Constellation Brands, owners of major wine brands such as Robert Mondavi in California and Hardy’s in Australia, has also announced it wishes to sell off various interests.
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The wine world is changing fast - again.
That’s about all we have time for right now. I hope to be in touch again shortly, but in the meantime I hope that life is treating you all right - and I hope also to see you here again before too long.
With kind regards
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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