Newsletters
 March, 2009
Dear Customer,
Our newsletters are unfashionably verbose, so if you prefer to go straight to a particular topic, the main headings are below.
Our New List
It has taken longer to produce this March newsletter than anticipated, for which my apologies. Website changes, Forthcoming Events, facts and opinions need to be checked before going to print, all of which takes a huge amount of time.
Here in the north of France, bright warm spring days have arrived bringing a stronger flow of British, French and Belgian customers coming to pick up their quality wines at our low, low French prices.
Our New List
Spring is buying season here in Ardres and as you will see from our New List we have extended our selection of good but inexpensive wines and our prices now start even lower at just 2,30€ with new wines from Bergerac and Minervois. A few new wines have also been added to our existing tried and tested selection, including some excellent Organic Wines to complement our small Bio-Dynamic range.
People often ask how we manage to sell our quality wines at such low prices and the answers are simple: there is next to no excise duty in France, so immediately you save around £2 per bottle of still wine. Coupled with that is that we are a small company with low overheads and clearly we have a genuine desire to see our customers go out happy rather than being constrained by the need to make "x percentage" gross margins - I think you will understand my point.
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Easter Opening Hours & Cross Channel Deal
Boursot's Wine Collection will be open normal hours 10 - 6 over the Easter holiday weekend - with the sole exception of Easter Sunday when the shop is planned to be closed. Easter is clearly a popular time as you decide to take advantage of the long weekend, especially if the weather forecast looks good in France.
However, as always, if you wish to come outside these hours, do please call on either of the telephone numbers on our website and we shall be pleased to open, assuming we are around.
We are waiting to hear what cross channel fare deals from April onwards are available to you as a Boursot's customer. However, we recommend you call the Ferry Travel Club on 0870 264 2644 in the normal way (quoting our code "Boursot") to see what its current best prices are. Day returns normally start at around £20 for a car and its passengers. With Easter and the school holidays falling in April, occupancy on the boats is expected to be strong.
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Wine News
One piece of recent news was the announcement that the 150 year old independent wine merchants Lay & Wheeler of Colchester had been bought out by Majestic plc. Having had the experience a few years ago of transforming a private wine company into a public wine company, I know that the ambitions of the two are completely different and as a wine lover, I feel saddened by this news. For the sake of a balanced wine market, I hope that there will not be too many other mainstream casualties during these hard economic times.
As you will have read here some months ago, 2008 as a grape growing year in France was difficult. In general, 2008 produced severely reduced quantities, due to hail damage in the main - as one example, Pouilly Fumé lost 40% of its crop overnight. However in view of the current state of the world economy, most producers feel disinclined to raise their prices to cover the impending shortfall in their income this year. I often wonder why anyone would ever wish to grow vines!
In Bordeaux the 2008 harvest is causing a few headaches as despite the various weather problems last year and a consequently reduced yield, the resulting quality has turned out better than expected and this seems especially true of the Merlot based wines such as those from Saint-Emilion and Pomerol. However with no immediate end in sight of a depressed global economy, it seems that Bordeaux is going to need to reduce its prices substantially in order to sell its crop. The press tastings are coming up in Bordeaux shortly, when the world will be able to glimpse a view of the wines' quality. And then we shall see how this most traditional of markets reacts.
However on the other side of the world New Zealand, thanks to a huge harvest in 2008 and an anticipated glut in the current 2009 harvest, there is a contrasting problem: too much wine. New Zealand made its name on the world wine stage thanks to its Sauvignon Blanc and there is talk of one major UK supermarket chain looking to sell hundreds of thousands of cases of these wines at a target price of £2.99 (for which read £5.99 and then special Half Price Offer).
If this should happen, it is unlikely that New Zealand will again be able to offer such wines at its previous premium price of, typically, £6.99. Perhaps this will be good for British consumer in the short term, but the longer term ramifications for New Zealand, the Sauvignon and the general world of wine will look less than healthy. Australia had oversupply problems a few years ago, and has never managed to recover fully. Indeed, the country now finds itself with a 15 year low in its wine sales.
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Wine and Government
Some recent good news for France's wine business was that the Evin Law which dates back to 1991 is to be modernised so as to reduce some of the restrictions on wine "advertising" - this law had recently been reinterpreted by the courts to prohibit French websites showing any form of promotion (pictures or text) of alcohol. Consequently many French wine producers had blocked French internet users from accessing their websites. French wine columnists had also been prosecuted for writing about wine, the interpretation being, again, that they were promoting alcohol. Anyway, all that appears now to be a thing of the past - at least for the time being, until some new Brussels diktat emerges.
In France it is illegal to sell any product below cost and I believe that many people would support stopping this practice in Britain - especially on alcohol. There are many conflicting words being spoken in British governmental circles on the subject of alcohol, but surely UK supermarkets can easily enough be ordered to find other, more responsible, areas than alcohol to fight out their price wars? How is it that a supermarket chain wanting to claim the biggest market share, permits beer and wine to be subsidised so that youngsters can buy them cheaper than water? What good does this do for society?
And yet spirits manufacturers continue to launch and promote, for instance, alcoholic fruit flavoured drinks that are specifically "targeted at the 18-35 female market" as the press publicity for one major new vodka-based brand proudly announced not so long ago. I imagine that these multi-national producers generate huge revenue for the Exchequer whilst the government can also increase taxes on all drinkers - simply because it is easy to do so. The government wins both ways. Last year the duty increase on wine across the two Budgets was 17%.
We know already that the Budget on 22nd April will yet again increase the tax on wine in the UK - it's simply a question of by how much. I expect to see, as in last year's run-up to the Budget, increasing "spin" and vilification of alcohol in general causing some people to fear that the duty increase will be huge. Those people will then feel they have got off lightly when the announced duty increase turns out to be lower than that broadcast. Spin!
However, it should be pointed out that across the world many governments need the alcohol tool from their tax-raising toolbox. Just look at California and its $41 billion budget deficit - they have increased the tax on a bottle of wine from 4 cents to 29.6 cents. So the British are not alone!
It had been feared that the teetotal Mr. Sarkozy might support calls to raise tax on wine consumption, which would have the effect of kicking his country's own wine producers who are already having a tough time. But currently it seems this is not a route he will be going down - after all, the French wine business already contributes more tax revenue to the French Exchequer than France's aerospace industry. If he did follow this route, there would be serious cause for Revolution.
So... I feel the need to advertise here and remind you that you are still buying your wines at Boursot's Wine Collection at virtually duty-free prices! Come and stock up here, where the British Chancellor cannot get you!
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Events
Our recent Rhône Gourmet Dinner at Château Tilques was a delightful evening. There was a good group of friendly customers and we enjoyed great food, sensational wines and excellent service in an impressive and tranquil environment. The real stars of the show were the Galopine white from Domaine des Escaravailles which is vinified in the style of a top quality white Burgundy. This wine is delicious now and for its quality, offers incredible value at 16,90€. The other wine which simply knocked everything else sideways was the Châteauneuf du Pape made from 100 year old vines by Domaine de Villeneuve, beside the more famous Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe. It was full, rich, complex, lingering - you name it, this red Rhône was all there.
The next Gourmet Dinner will be on Saturday 16th May and I will announce further details just as soon as I can pull them all together.
I am also working on a selection of Lunches and Dinners through the summer months and will again come back to you as soon as fuller details are available.
One advance date however that you can put into your diary now is for our Anniversary Dinner which will be on Saturday 17th October: we already have a top British speaker booked for this event which will be held at one of the good hotels of this area. He is one of the best-known, most spontaneous and amusing wine critics in Britain - but more details about all this in a future newsletter.
Remember also that if you would like a wine event for a group of friends or colleagues either here in Ardres or in England, we can help organise it for you. For example, one of the good restaurants in the area can be matched up with your taste and budget and a meal with four courses, six wines, coffee, water and the entertainment of having someone talk about the wines can be in the region of as little as 39€ per head. For tasting groups, we can also lay on a full tasting followed by a bread, charcuterie and cheese lunch for around 10€ per person and all this can be held in our vaulted cellars. Do please call or e-mail if you would like to discover more - you will not be disappointed.
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Offer until Easter
Our wonderful Saint-Réol, Grand Cru Champagne is back - as many of you aficionados know, this is a very high quality champagne, both in white and in rosé, at a most reasonable price. In taste it beats so many other well-known brand champagnes and being made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, just two of the three Champagne grapes, it has a very soft style and is perfect for weddings and parties.
For all orders placed before Easter, we are pleased to offer you 0,30€ reduction off our list prices - making a net price of 19,20€ for the Grand Cru White and 23,20€ for the Grand Cru Rosé.
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Conclusion
City talk has been for the pound/euro exchange rate to improve very soon and very quickly - and as you may imagine, we are eagerly awaiting this.
Our business has grown by word of mouth, so thank you very much for your continuing support. So don't forget to tell your friends about us - we are a small company and need all the help we can get.
I look forward to seeing you here in Ardres again soon, when you can come and taste a few wines, enjoy a relaxing lunch and stock up on a few other French goodies. Such simple pleasures cost so little!
With my 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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