Newsletters

June, 2008

Dear Customer,

Our newsletters are unfashionably verbose, so if you prefer to flick to a particular topic, the main headings are below.

• Cross Channel Offer
• Forthcoming Events
• Wine News
• Wine Offers
• Holidays

Cross-Channel Offer

As a Boursot's Wine Collection customer, you have access to our specially negotiated cross-channel Day-Return Fare of just £20 during June on SeaFrance. This is bookable ONLY by telephoning 0870 264 2644 and quoting our special code "Boursot". In addition, during June come here and spend more than 600 euros (around £470 at present rates) in one transaction and we will pay for your ferry crossing. To take advantage of this specific Offer, please contact us 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.

Currently there are no strikes or blockages anticipated on this side of the channel that might impede your crossing to France. Do call or e-mail us if you are unsure about a potential “situation”.

Forthcoming Events

Our next two wine events are quite different from each other. For dates and details of other upcoming events, see our May newsletter on this link.

1. On Saturday 5th July, we are hosting a dinner which is a rare opportunity for you to try a whole range of different champagnes against different courses. Our Gourmet Dinner will be held at the Hotel Chateau des Tourelles in the little village of Le Wast, about 20 minutes away from Ardres.

Your speaker is an ex-chairman of l’Académie de Champagne, the body that represents the generic interests of the Grande Marque Champagne Houses in the UK. In addition, the speaker’s family was solely responsible for importing one of the best known Grande Marque houses into the UK for 130 years and was involved with many firsts in the Champagne industry such as the legal fight to protect the name of Champagne in the late 1950s/early 1960s, as well as the introduction of dry Champagne on to the world market.

You can be assured of a fascinating but thoroughly enjoyable evening and I believe you will be surprised by the sheer diversity of styles of this, arguably the world’s greatest sparkling wine. The evening starts with a Champagne reception and then you should enjoy with different courses Vintage, Rosé, Blanc de Blancs and Sweet champagnes. We will also serve the de luxe cuvée, Dom Pérignon - so you will be able to tell us your reaction. The all-in price of all this indulgence is just 105 euros which, as you will appreciate offers extra-ordinary value for 4 courses and all champagnes, water and coffee and a full evening’s entertainment.

We have also blocked off a number of bedrooms so that at the end of the evening, you can simply toddle upstairs without any worries!

2. After that, we have a fun Sunday lunch on Sunday 13th July – the day when Ardres celebrates its unique “Fête de la Belle Roze” which commemorates Françoise Roze’s saving of Ardres from the Spaniards in 1653. The day starts at 11am and goes on until 5pm. A day of summer enjoyment, stalls and street processions with two giants - La Belle Roze and King Francois 1er.

There will be a fun Sunday lunch at Ardres’ Hotel Clément hosted by Guy Boursot, with lots of good wines to try over a reasonably priced lunch. Tickets are 49 euros per person to include 4 courses, all wines, water and coffee – and all entertainment.

We are accepting bookings for all our other Events during 2008, and some of these such as our Anniversary Dinner at the Hotel Atlantic in October and our Ardres Christmas Market Lunch in December are filling fast. If you’d like to come to specific events as set out previously on this link, it’s best to book early.

Wine News

By contrast to the world of spirits, there’s not a great deal of news in the wine world at the moment. By all accounts the wine business in the UK is finding this a challenging time; not surprisingly many members of the public are trading down on the value of their wine purchases.

Sadly, the level of UK duty does not diminish with lower priced wines – it’s a flat rate £1.48 per bottle before VAT on a bottle of still wine, whether it be priced at £4 or £400.

As you probably know, the value of “wine” as raw product within a bottle is tiny. To give you an idea, a £4.99 bottle in the UK has around 75 pence worth of “wine” in the bottle – everything else being the costs of bottles, corks, labels, transport, duty and VAT and of course somewhere along the line there has to be some profit so that the supplier can continue to offer his service. My advice has always been, if possible, to spend an extra £1 – and you should get twice the value of wine in the bottle.

Here in Ardres, clearly there is no duty to speak of, and transport charges are lower, so that same £4.99 bottle of wine will be priced here at around £2.50 – “50% off”, if you like retailer marketing speak! Even with the pound / euro situation improving but not yet enough, the savings you make here are still colossal.

With many UK retailers realigning their margins and price points, this is a trying time for the customer and JP’s comments in last month’s newsletter struck a familiar chord with some of you. And don’t believe the appealing “50% off” offers – just remember the depressing words of the Chief Executive of Pernod Ricard as written in our August 2007 newsletter. Fortunately an increasing number of people are now questioning the morality of the multiple retailer tactics of buy one at one price, buy a 2nd at 50% off. One needs to understand that the reduced price is the genuine price and what the retailer is getting out of you when you buy the single bottle is 50% additional margin! As attractive as that may sound, this is not our way of doing business.

An increasing number of people come to Boursot’s Wine Collection and discover that from just €3 (£2.36 at today’s exchange rate), you can get a really delicious bottle of wine. But so many people also appreciate the ability to taste wines before they purchase – contrast this experience with that at other retailers and you can understand why people find shopping here such an enjoyable experience.

On 16th May Robert Mondavi died at his home in Yountville, California at the grand age of 94. He was without doubt the greatest pioneer of the American wine industry.

His winery in the Napa valley of California has been a centre of innovation since the late 1960s and he, more than anyone else, was responsible for putting California on the world’s wine map. He managed to combine marketing flair with technical expertise within the Californian wine industry. Mondavi went on to create joint ventures such as that, most famously, with Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild in Bordeaux with whom he created a Californian wine known as Opus One, now a collectors’ wine.

In 2004, the Robert Mondavi winery was sold to the giant Constellation Brands for a cool $1.36 billion, adding to its portfolio which includes Hardy’s and Nobilo among its other major wine brands.

I had the good fortune of meeting Robert Mondavi at his Napa valley winery in 1985. One fact that struck me then was that for such a god-like name (I was young and impressionable!) and busy man, he gave of his time freely - to the extent of over two hours. This was how so many “great leaders” were then – to him and to others of his sort, words such as “too busy” didn’t exist if there was a chance to expound his philosophy. Robert Mondavi had estimated that I would be one of his ambassadors, and to me of course that felt a great privilege. And consequently I returned his trust by doing my best for him - just one of many fine memories of a Great Wine Man.

Wine Offers

As you know, rather than following mass retailer ploys of artificially hiking prices so as to (sometimes) take "enormous" discounts off, we give you genuinely keen net prices on our wines of guaranteed quality. This month we'd like to highlight some wines that are either new to us or that we feel deserve better attention. They will all show off very well at any special parties you may be planning. We show the prices here in Euros (without the approximate sterling equivalent). You should take advantage of these temporarily reduced prices. So as to get the wines you'd like while they are still available at these reduced prices, your orders may be reserved now and held until such time as you wish to collect.

If you like good Alsace wines and their refreshing qualities, you should love our wines from the small producer Robert Faller & Fils based in the picturesque town of Ribeauvillé. I have been following these wines over many years and always compare Faller's wines very favourably against Trimbach's - but at very much better value.

WHITES

REDS

Holidays

If you are travelling around France this summer and do not have the opportunity to visit Boursot’s Wine Collection, you can have some cases of your favourite wines delivered to where you are staying – either for you to enjoy whilst you’re there or for you to bring back to the UK, so as not to pay the UK tax.

I do hope you are enjoying our wines and I look forward to seeing you here in Ardres again very soon. Your support is very much appreciated.

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