Newsletters
 July, 2014
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Bonjour
I apologise for the absence of recent newsletters - the continuing growth of the business in Ardres has been absorbing.
The main headings in this newsletter are shown below.
General
There has been a marked improvement recently in the exchange rate and at the moment the euro rate is around 1.26 to the pound.
The rates of UK duty before VAT are now £2.05 per bottle of still wine and £2.63 on each bottle of sparkling wine. This tax forms part of the cost price, so retailers have to calculate their margin on that higher cost, so the difference becomes even greater. Add 20% VAT then to both the duty and to the value of the wine and you have ... a really unhappy situation for UK wine drinkers.
In France there is only a negligible rate of duty on wine, thanks to the country being a major supplier of wine. So, its tax still remains at a comparatively non-existent rate of around 3p per bottle! You get a lot more wine for your money in France.
With the average sale price of a bottle of wine in the UK being £5.03, this means that around 65% of the cost of that bottle is now consumed in tax.
Some of you enjoy the lower expenditure while others spend the same on your bottle as you might in the UK, but by buying at Boursot's Wine Collection in France, you get a far superior quality and value. With a range starting at under £3 per bottle, Boursot's has developed a reputation for offering French wines of reliably good quality and value. Boursot's Wine Collection has taken some of the confusion and risk out of seeking and buying decent French wines, and with its Brit owner and English speaking staff, you will always receive g ood advice. Often you can taste the wines too.
On our list you get a good selection of French wines here in Ardres with some huge savings over UK prices. You can rest assured that all the wines on this list, starting at just 3,40€ (around £2.70) per bottle, have been tasted and selected by me as being "good" in their own different ways - it's then simply a question of your personal preferences and of course everyone has different tastes.
Many of you say the same thing - voiced by one happy customer not so long ago "One has to be crazy to buy wines in England. Virtually no choice on the high street and when you can find something interesting, it's ridiculously expensive... This (coming to Ardres) is so much fun, it's so easy, we make a day of it and everyone is happy".
We host a number of high quality wine dinners at some top local restaurants - and we have some especially entertaining events coming up over the coming months. You should come, so please see in te relevant section below for more details.
Remember: according to HM Customs & Excise you can take back as much wine as you like from France to Britain, provided that it's for your personal consumption. If you want to take back a lorry full of wine for your own use at weddings and parties, you are perfectly within your rights to do so.
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Boursot's Reduced Cross Channel Fares
We have arranged for you as a Boursot customer reduced fares with P&O until 31st March 2015. For a day trip or overnight trip (meaning returning before midnight the following day), your return fare will be just £22. There is normally a small supplement between £3 and £5 for travelling on a Saturday.
The Afternoon Return Fare is £17, except between April and October when the price is £19. This means departure after midday and returning before midnight. So, after buying your wines in Ardres, you should also be able to fit in some fine dining!
These special rates are exclusive to Boursot's and apply to on-line bookings for a car and up to 4 passengers and can be accessed through this link or on the Offers page of our website. Our promotional code is boursot. As always, there may be some specific £5 supplement days but provided there is availability and that you re travelling in a standard car, you will pay these low rates.
Being the busy holiday season now, no special rates are available on Friday to Sunday travel dates between 18th July and 3rd September. There is also a £5 supplement for travel on normal weekdays between 18th July and 3rd September.
You should book at least 24 hours in advance so as to take advantage of this P&O offer. We hope you find this helpful .
In case you didn't know it already, we should point out that Tesco clubcard points can be exchanged for Eurotunnel tickets, although it may not be possible to use these in conjunction with any other Offer.
You may have seen that Eurotunnel has bought part of the old SeaFrance fleet, which has been smartened up and is being leased to a workers' group based in Calais. Having travelled on this line recently, I was struck by the improvement in quality over the old SeaFrance operation. Myferrylink.com is the name of the new company and you can find some attractive prices with them. You get no prizes for guessing their web address!
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Boursot's Hotel Offers
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. Whilst talking about Local Info, we also list the Bank Holidays so that you do not find, on getting here, that everything is closed (except Boursot's Wine Collection of course which remains open every day except Sundays and Mondays and over the Christmas period).
We are very fortunate to be in an area with several good eating establishments at all different price levels, so do ask us if you would like a recommendation.
If you are a "foodie " we are pleased to bring you our Special Offer from the 4 star Hostellerie de 3 Mousquetaires which is just 30 minutes' south of Ardres on the outskirts of Aire sur la Lys. Here you will enjoy a cosy atmosphere and fine cuisine as many of you have discovered already. Chef proprietor David Wojtkowiak worked at the Berkeley Hotel in London before setting up his own restaurants in northern France and so speaks good English.
This offer is available to you during the week but not at weekends. Normally a room for two would cost from 115€, breakfast 15€ per person and dinner typically 45€ per person: total 235€. The offer to Boursot's Wine Collection customers is an all-in price of dinner, bed and breakfast for two at 95€ per person. Dinner is a set option and we have heard glowing reports from those of you who have taken up this Offer. When you book, you must mention Boursot's Wine Collection to get these special terms. You can call on +33 321 39 01 11 or there is a booking form on: www.hostelleriedes3mousquetaires.com/fr/reservations.php.
Also, as a Boursot's Wine Collection customer, you have access to reduced rates at the 4 star Hôtel Château Tilques between here and Saint-Omer. Here they are giving you a special price on their superior "Luxe" room at 159€ per double or twin room (or 135€ per single room) any night of the week. While you may see a "special price" on their own and some other websites, that price excludes breakfast at 16€ per person whereas our Offer includes it.
When booking, please mention Boursot to get your special rates.
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New in at our UK online boutique are some Cellar Books are proving popular for those who wish to keep a record of their purchases and cellar contents. Made for us in Britain, these are practical as well as aesthetically pleasing. Unlike many other types of cellar book, on the market, our cellar books are loose leaf, and hand bound with marbled paper and are available in three different colours. A Boursot's Cellar Book makes a fantastic gift for any wine lover.
Click on the Cellar Book underlined link above to view more information.
Our full selection of items is available in the Ardres shop, including wine-related gifts such as USB flash drives disguised as corks, framed copies of our exclusive Nick Newman wine cartoons, wine map tea towels, silver tastevin cufflinks, decanters, Screwpull wine accessories and many more.
Do also take a look at the G&V Blog, which includes articles about wine, recipes using wine and product information. Please feel free to add your comments and suggestions, as we welcome interaction.
New items appear regularly so do please keep coming back or sign up via this page to receive direct updates via ezine or Twitter.
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Your Own Events in France
You may know it already but we are often asked to help organise various social events - for groups such as Golf Clubs, Rotary Clubs, U3A, Wine Clubs, Car Clubs, birthday parties, office parties, pre-wedding parties etc.
Typically, when planning your event, we would discuss your desired objectives and work backwards from there. We can liaise on your behalf with local restaurants and if required, hotels.
We use restaurants in and around Ardres that can happily accommodate your needs and provide good quality food at a sensible price, while we can provide our wines at shop prices with no cost of "corkage " to you. Typically a four course lunch or dinner works out at 27€ all-inclusive and six wines work out at 8€ per person.
Depending on whether you would like it, one of us can talk a little about the various wines being served, probably concluding with some entertaining words about what's going on in the World of Wine. These events are always fun and they are different: with only 23 miles across that English Channel, but a million miles away in cultural terms, people always seem delighted to get away for a complete change of scenery and for a bit of French life.
"Many thanks for arranging our recent visit to Ardres. Everyone enjoyed themselves so much they want to come again." CW, Fetcham U3A.
You can also enjoy tastings, presentations or general events in our recently restored vaulted cellars under our shop. If you should be interested in holding a tasting or other event for up to 35 people in the cellars, please say and we will be happy to reserve the space for you.
Additionally we have been pleased to incorporate some vineyard visits for some groups as part of their overall trip. Typically a visit to Champagne going behind the scenes and meeting the producers involving two nights, two dinners, two lunches and all visits starts at around £350 per person. So do ask us if a visit to a vineyard area could be of interest for your group.
And finally, I am of course happy to travel to you to present wine related events to your groups or dinners, or simply to be your after-dinner speaker with a difference! I have a lot of experience in this, and is one reason, I imagine, why many clients continue to ask me back year after year.
Do please contact me by phone or through my speaker website guy@boursot.com to explore your options.
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Forthcoming Boursot Events
Boursot's dinners are held for our British customers and so are of course always conducted in English. They often feature a wine-related guest speaker. Pretty much everything is taken care of, starting with our specially arranged crossing prices with P&O, through to a bubbly reception, followed by a four course dinner designed to go well with at least five more wines. Generally, we can also arrange nearby accommodation for you, so that most of the time all you need do after dinner is totter upstairs (perhaps via the bar?)!
All in all, the Boursot events are designed to be highly enjoyable while offering phenomenal value. We take a private room where we normally restrict numbers to around 40, so as to retain a friendly atmosphere. Great food, great wine and great company. All you need to do is to come along and enjoy!
Vegetarian and alternative food options can be provided, as long as we receive ample advance notice. If a planned guest speaker is unable to attend, we will endeavour to find another speaker and if none is available, Guy Boursot will present the talk. All our events are planned to be enjoyable, interesting and unstuffy.
Boursot's Wine Collection is open on the Sunday mornings after a Saturday evening dinner.
Perhaps you have an anniversary to celebrate or you just want to get away for a quick change of scenery? As many of you have testified already, we make it easy for you to get away for a weekend with a difference. And of course, you are most welcome to bring some friends.
Please contact us on ardres@boursot.co.uk or on +33 321 36 81 46 to book for any of our events below.
Saturday 27th September: "The effects of global climate change on vineyards - what might we expect during our lifetimes?" with Guy Boursot at Hôtel Château Cléry, Hesdin l'Abbé
With climate having been so much in the news, we will discuss the changes already affecting the wines that we drink and what we might expect, good and bad, in the coming years.
With the excellent food and comfortable rooms provided by Château Cléry, this should be a lovely evening and could make a good basis for your weekend's activities along the coast near Boulogne. Dinner tickets will be 89€ per person to include 4 courses and 6 wines.
As usual, we have blocked off a number of bedrooms at the hotel so do please say if you would like us to give you a room from our allocation.
This dinner is currently at 33% occupancy so we suggest reserving your places as soon as you can.
Saturday 18th October: Boursot's Eighth Anniversary Dinner hosted by Guy Boursot at The Hotel Atlantic, Wimereux
During the day, there will be a tasting of several new wines in Boursot's cellars under the Ardres shop. And in the evening, Boursot's will be hosting a Gourmet Dinner at the Hotel Atlantic on the seafront in Wimereux. The food at the Atlantic is always of very high quality and with our great wines, we can be assured of a lovely evening.
Over several years, we have had an invited guest speaker on this special anniversary evening. However, there have been several requests to have Guy Boursot talk again impartially about wine in his capacity as an entertaining wine writer. We have blocked off a few bedrooms at the hotel so do please say if you would like us to give you a room from our allocation. Additionally, there are many other hotels and B&Bs where you can stay within easy walking distance.
Tickets will be 89€ per head to cover at least 4 courses, 6 wines and all entertainment!
This dinner is currently at 25% occupancy so we suggest reserving your places as soon as you can.
Saturday 15th November: "How the quality wines of Alsace are gradually winning over the world" with Nicolas Faller at Hôtel Château Tilques, Saint-Omer
Back by popular demand, Nicolas Faller is unusual in that he is an international banker while running the wine making Robert Faller & Fils in Ribeauvillé, Alsace. Nicolas Faller entertained many of us last year, describing how he managed to combine his two worlds and how his life in banking complemented his "other" winemaking life.
This year, he will be telling us about how Alsace wines, while being acclaimed by those in the wine business, have always had a cautious reception from customers around the world. Quality is better than ever and there are now few people who could deny that the area produces some of the world's great unique flavours. What has changed?
We will of course be organising a menu with some Alsace specialities that will accompany the Alsace wine choices.
Tickets will be 86€ per head to cover at least 4 courses, 6 wines and all entertainment!
This dinner is currently at 30% occupancy so we suggest reserving your places as soon as you can.
Sunday 7th December: Ardres Christmas Market Lunch at the Restaurant François Premier, Ardres
So easily accessible from Britain, the town of Ardres always injects some fun and colour into an otherwise grey time of the year.
As last year, the annual Turkey Festival held about 20 minutes away in Licques, will NOT be happening on the same day but on the following Sunday. So, in place of that entertainment, we will have wines available to taste in the cellars under our Ardres shop from 10.30 on the morning of Sunday 7th, and then we will go across to lunch at 12.30 at the François Premier which hardly needs any introduction, being one of the finest restaurants of this area. Being situated on Ardres' main cobbled square, you will be in front of much of the afternoon's action, so you may be able to watch some of it from the warmth of the restaurant!
The informal three course lunch will be preceded by a bubbly reception and then accompanied by a further five Boursot wines, and everything costs just 60€ (around £48 at today's rate). I will tell you about the backgrounds of the wines being served.
We suggest you "do" the Ardres Christmas Market after lunch by which time everyone's spirits will have been warmed up! Père Noel is normally found to be abseiling down the outside of the church at around 6pm, throwing goodies to many of the local children gathered below!
This is always a popular event in our calendar. As it always sells out, if you feel you would like to come along, we recommend making a tentative reservation as soon as you can. Tickets are already 70% sold but as in previous years we will be maintaining a waiting list, as cancellations can arise.
This is a fun day out and for many, makes a great start to the Christmas season. Just say if you'd like us to point you towards decent local places to stay the night before, that night, or both.
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Views on the World of Wine
You often ask me as a wine presenter and writer to tell you my thoughts about what appears to be happening currently in the global wine market. Here is a collection of my latest thoughts.
In very general terms the weather around the French vineyards in 2014 has been excellent and in many areas, a good harvest is expected which will be a welcome relief after the very difficult 2013 when harvest yields were substantially below their normal levels, causing shortages of several wines.
However, yet again this Summer there have been some violent hailstorms hitting some areas badly. The vines in the villages of Pommard, Volnay and, to a lesser extent, Meursault in Burgundy's Côte de Beaune were decimated on 28th June - for the third year in a row. I was talking the other day with some local vignerons and it was felt that some important producers around the Côte de Beaune will have no choice now but to close down as such damage (between 20% and 90% depending on the location) could never yield enough to repair their already badly dented balance sheets. The Médoc in Bordeaux has also seen hail damage this year.
It is early days yet to predict how any of France's grape harvests will turn out, but thanks to an early Spring and a generally warm Summer, picking should start slightly earlier than normal from the end of August. This should prove a blessing for those growers who are keeping a nervous eye on the weather forecasts.
English wine should enjoy a good 2014 and if this fine summer weather continues, there should be a harvest of plentiful quantity and good quality, albeit that English wine is still relatively small as an industry. Best known for its sparkling wine, England has been gradually coming on to the world quality wine production scene over recent years. I just wish someone would find a catchy name for English sparkling wine: Cava (Spanish), Champagne (French), Crémant (French), Prosecco (Italian), Sekt (German) and erm… English sparkling wine!
One of my most common complaints about much modern wine is its apparent strength. To me, a wine should not taste strong: in other words, one should not be able to taste alcohol or find "burn" on the palate. Poorly made wines can have these characteristics and you might be surprised by the number of supposedly well-known named wines that we reject for these reasons. The actual alcoholic degree is to me not as important as the taste - a wine can still be 15%, yet taste soft and fruity.
This increased strength has come about due to a combination of warmer climatic conditions and later harvesting which yields grapes with increased sugar levels and by consequence more potential alcohol. With red wines, the harshness of the preserving tannins can be masked by sugars and while the wines can last as long as they did in olden days, they can also be consumed sooner and this is an important economic attraction to all those involved in the selling of wine, whether producer or merchant. I have heard producers blame global warming for their change of wine style but there has also been a clear change in winemaking practices. In my view vignerons need to rethink their mid-Summer "green harvest" that thins out the number of grapes while cutting away excess foliage so as to allow maximum photosynthesis to the grapes, ultimately resulting in richer, riper flavours. Easier said than done, I know.
I do not think I am wrong in believing that wine lovers are not looking for alcoholic kick; they enjoy fruit expressive flavours and in the more expensive wines, they appreciate the various subtle nuances that make up the very essence of "finer" wine.
Now, following a British government driven initiative to reduce alcohol consumption, especially among the young, thousands of bars and pubs across Britain have agreed to offer 'house' wine lower than 12.5% strength. This sounds to me like appeasement, as I cannot see how this can be of any direct benefit to anyone, least of all the victims. However, a glass will still be unregulated so it can be as much as 175ml - a quarter of a bottle! But of course, still no reproach to the huge distillers to stop producing their fruit based alcoholic drinks aimed specifically at the youth market.
Total champagne shipments in 2013 were 304 million bottles against a figure of 309 million bottles in 2012. However, more confidence appears to be returning to the champagne market, with a small increase in sales in the first six months of 2014, driven mainly from outside the mature European market. As some of the most proactive marketing machines in France, many of the big champagne houses had invested substantially in developing new markets and these investments are now beginning to pay dividends. For example one such company, Moët Hennessy, owns Chandon in Napa, Brazil, Argentina, India, China and Australia; Cloudy Bay in Marlborough; Cape Mentelle in Margaret River; Newton Vineyard in Napa; Terrazas de los Andes and Cheval des Andes in Argentina; Numanthia in Toro, and Shangri-La in China. That's quite a portfolio, before one has even begun to consider their several wine interests in France!
As a result of this renewed optimism in the champagne market, together with the prospect of a great harvest, this year's permitted harvest yield has been raised by 5% to 10,500 kilos of grapes per hectare. This annual yield review acts like a carburettor on the market.
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Wine Tourism
Whilst much of Europe has been relatively slow to catch on, nowadays France's vineyard areas in particular have really embraced wine tourism. You just have to visit Epernay, Beaune or Bordeaux to appreciate how wine tourism has been accepted and developed and whilst you can try dropping in on whoever might see you, increasingly many top domaines will only see you as part of an officially recognised group. In addition, many big producers have managed to dumb down their tours for tourists with absolutely no wine knowledge to such an extent that you would probably feel disappointed if you know anything about wine, as clearly you do. It is increasingly clear that you need a specialist to get you behind the doors that are closed to everyone else.
Having visited the quality vineyards over many years, I set up Over The Top Tours some years ago to share my experiences with groups of interested customers. So if you should like to visit one of France's viticultural areas, go to our vineyard tours company www.overthetoptours.net - we will take you behind the scenes in many of the great vineyard areas where you will meet and often dine with some of the producers. Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Languedoc, Loire, Rhône and the South West are all areas that we visit and where we have great contacts who are happy to greet and inform you, as well as invite you to taste a wide selection of their wines.
Fine dining is also included as it goes hand in hand with good wine.
We tailor private tours specific to your preferences, so if you have a group of friends or colleagues whom you would like to get together on a vineyard tour, please do contact me on info@overthetoptours.net and we can start working out a schedule and budget. Do remember however that weekends, and especially Sundays, are often not good times for visits, as so many vineyards are small hands-on enterprises and do not employ teams of PR personnel to show you around!
Ideal sized groups are between 12 and 26 adults and typically two nights away with all meals and visits start at around £350. We do all the planning and make the bookings so all you will need do is to come along and enjoy a thoroughly memorable trip.
As you will see from our website, we also organise battlefield tours around northern France.
A couple of testimonials:
"People are still talking about the wine trip. Those that went have had great fun telling those that didn't just what they missed. The 49 wines tasted have somehow become 100 and the light lunches and dinners magnified out of all proportion. We must think about the next place to take them another year. " JM - May 2012
Our group of eight recently spent three days in Burgundy with the hope of trying to broaden our understanding of the wines and the region. Having used guides before we had found that guides can be overly technical and insist on telling you what they know rather than what you are interested in. Through Over The Top Tours we struck 'gold' and found their guide Ursula and in doing so found someone who really knows their subject matter but also someone who was all about making sure we enjoyed ourselves during the process as well which given our diverse group was not easy. It's fair to say that Ursula made our trip to Burgundy and we would all unreservedly recommend her and Over The Top Tours to anyone thinking of visiting Burgundy. ND - September 2013
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TripAdvisor, Twitter and E-mail
In case you thought that TripAdvisor was only for hotels and restaurants, think again! It is also there for " Things to do" and for " Shopping" so if you are particularly happy with what we do, please help us by telling others and post your comments on TripAdvisor. This link will take you directly to our page. Your positive input will be most gratefully received. In most cases, one does not know who the contributors are because they use a pen name, but to those 19 people who have already put up favourable reviews, thank you very much. It all helps.
Hotmail.com and aol.com have particularly vicious spam filters which reject many mailshots, even though you might have asked to be mailed. So if you know of another Boursot customer who is not receiving our monthly e-mails, please ask him or her to check with us - perhaps it's because of these filters that they are not receiving our mailings, but we can also check the address that we have on file. Also, if you are about to change e-mail provider, please don't forget to advise us of your new address, so we can update your records.
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Holidays
In case you should be travelling to France and wish to have some good wines available for you to enjoy while you are away, you can have your requirements delivered to your French address by going to our French e-commerce website www.boursot.fr. The process should be self-explanatory but do call or e-mail us if you need help.
Boursot's Wine Collection does not close for holidays and is open as usual every day except Sundays. It is also open every Bank Holiday - French or British (with the exception of a few days around Christmas).
Please let us know if you should like to visit outside our normal opening hours; with a little advance notice, often it is possible to open up or else to leave your order nearby for you to collect - and we have a secure web page on which you can leave your card details.
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Boursot's New List
You can always see Boursot's latest list on this link and if you would like to print it, it's available on this link. The list is updated monthly but In the event that you see a previous version of the price list, try pressing Ctrl and F5 simultaneously on your computer so as to refresh the page.
If there is something that attracts your eye now, that you'd like us to put on one side for you, just say and we'll be happy to arrange it.
We also have a range of unusual sizes in wooden boxes, making smart gifts. For example, we have magnums, jeroboams (double magnums) and imperials (quadruple magnums) of Bordeaux, Champagne Rhône and Minervois, most of which are in wooden boxes at very sensible prices. As with our wine-related accessories, these make impressive and unusual gifts.
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In Conclusion
We are constantly being told that our offering is so much more exciting and wide ranging than the equivalent retail operation in Britain. We are proud of our wine selection which, thanks to your support, has been growing and is finding a wider audience with each passing month. Thank you.
We do not advertise and it is unlikely that you will read a review on us in the British media. We have found that your word of mouth continues to be our best source of new customers. So, if you are happy with what we do, please help us by telling your wine loving friends, or tweet about us - or you could refer your friends to our "Receive Monthly Newsletter" button on the home page of www.boursot.co.uk. And mention us on TripAdvisor. We will be very grateful to you.
As with all our wines, we stand by our guarantee to take back any resaleable bottles if you find that the wine is not to your taste or if you have too many bottles left over after a party.
If you are returning from a holiday, Boursot's Wine Collection is situated just off the old main north-south road (RN943) and is just 5 minutes north of Junction 2 of the A26. Then from Ardres to the port or the tunnel in Calais takes 15 minutes on the RN943.
Jean-Bertrand, Antoine, Bruno and I hope to see you here again very soon, whether it's for our delicious and easy to enjoy Petit Pont Réserve wines at under £3 a bottle or whether it's for something more exclusive for your special dinner parties. We have them all.
A bientôt!
With all best wishes
Guy
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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