Newsletters
 November, 2010
Dear Customer,
Our newsletters are 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.
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 offers are only available to you as a registered member of our database, and are not visible on our website. 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 Offer Code panel, enter the word 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.
Between 16 November and 9 December Eurotunnel is also offering a limited number of £20 day returns on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and you can access their web page on this link.
So now there is no excuse for not making it across to stock up on good wines at our low French prices for Christmas!
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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, Château 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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Your Own Events here in France
You may know it already, but we help run wine events for a large number of groups such as Golf Clubs, Rotary Clubs, U3A, Wine Clubs, birthday parties, office parties, pre-wedding parties etc.
Typically, you and I would discuss the desired objectives of your event and then work backwards. We can liaise on your behalf with local restaurants and if required, hotels. Being locals, often we are allowed to provide our wines at shop prices and with no cost of corkage to you.
I would say a few entertaining words about the various wines being served, probably concluding with a verbal foray into 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.
We have advantageous deals with SeaFrance as well as local restaurants and hotels so you can entertain your guests at extraordinary value. Do please contact me to explore your options.
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Forthcoming 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.
Sunday 12th December: Christmas Market Lunch at Hotel Le Relais, Ardres
Our Christmas lunch is the fun highlight of the year but I am sorry to say to those of you who have not applied, that this Lunch is now sold out. We have started a waiting list.
However, there is nothing to stop you coming to the other events that weekend. That morning, from 10am, the annual Turkey Festival will be held about 20 minutes away in the village of Licques, and then I suggest you come and “do” the Ardres Christmas Market in the afternoon, by which time the general atmosphere will have warmed up! Père Noël is normally to be found abseiling down the church spire at around 6pm.
Saturday 29th January: Boursot’s “Blues Buster” Gourmet Dinner
“The Sheer Variety from Champagne” hosted by Guy Boursot at Hotel Château Tllques
January is when most of us need a bit of cheering up. So, on the 29th we will be hosting a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable evening in the cosy surroundings of the four star Hotel Château Tilques.
Most of us are given a glass of champagne and we think “that’s nice!” and yes, we are aware that there are some differences between the various brands on the market, but have we ever had a chance to compare several different champagnes side by side? As I will be pointing out, there is a wide variety of styles and indeed we will be contrasting non-vintage, vintage, rosé and sweet champagnes over our four courses of dinner.
This evening will be just 89€ per person (about £77 at today’s rate) to include four courses and six champagnes. There are no extras to pay. As usual we have blocked off a number of bedrooms at our advantageous rate of 159€ per room, breakfast included, so do please let us know if you would like to take up one of our rooms
As you may know by now, my family has been involved with the Champagne trade since the early 19th century (see www.boursot.co.uk/champagne.html) and indeed I was chairman of the Champagne Academy, the UK body that represents the interests of the Grande Marque champagne houses and have given many talks on, and taken tours to, Champagne. So you will be in good hands for this evening!
Sunday 12th July: Mid-Summer Lunch
We are being asked already when our mid-summer “do” is going to be and so we are pleased to be able to tell you that it will be Sunday 12th July – an informal four course lunch at the waterside mill hotel Le Moulin at Audenfort just outside Licques, 10 minutes from Ardres. As always we will start with a bubbly reception and then move on to five wines accompanying each course. I will be talking about the wines as well as about what is going on in the world of wine at the moment. Tickets for the lunch will be 49€ (about £43 at today’s rate) and accommodation at around 55€ per room is available. It’s a good inexpensive day or weekend away.
There will also be dinners in March and April but we are awaiting further details.
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News in the World of Wine
I am regularly asked as a wine writer and presenter to pass on to you my thoughts about what appears to be happening in the global wine market.
I can update you on some of the old favourites about which I’ve written here previously.
2009 was inevitably a bleak point for wine producers all over the world, but sales volumes appear to have improved dramatically this year, although it is arguable that volumes have not been restored yet to pre-recession levels. And of course profitability is another discussion altogether - as with champagne sales which increased by 40% in the first quarter of 2010, much of this has been achieved by discounting to get the product moving again.
As pointed out here previously, UK alcohol tax rises are in general passed back to the producers who are told “if you want exposure for your product on our shelves, you will have to pay the tax”. Thanks to the UK’s ever rising taxes, the producer’s return on a bottle of wine retailing at £4 has fallen by 46% between 2002 and 2010. The UK is still the world’s largest market for imported wines, but the majority of suppliers that I talk to are looking at more profitable areas in which to sell their wines. Not good.
And yet, whilst there’s plenty of mediocre wine sloshing around the market, there’s never enough good wine. With headlines being made by the recent success of such wines (brands?) as Château Lafite, this is only serving to encourage most producers to look to new more profitable markets.
Few can have failed to have missed the recent extraordinary prices being achieved by top Bordeaux wines: 3 bottles of Château Lafite-Rothschild 1869 (probably undrinkable) achieving £437,900!
This is the Asian market (and especially the Chinese market) going mad for luxury possessions. The wines will probably never be drunk but will be sold onto someone else who wants to show to people that he has a “work of art”. These prices are bound have a knock-on effect to other top Bordeaux wines and indeed one could argue that the seeds of such widespread Chinese speculation partly forced the 2009 clarets to be so expensive.
Is LVMH looking to sell off its €12bn Moet Hennessy drinks business? Following LVMH’s acquisition of 17.1% of Hermès, all eyes are on chairman Bernard Arnault as to whether he is going to unload his shareholding in the drinks empire to fund a full assault on yet another high profile fashion house. UK drinks giant Diageo already has a 34% share in Moet Hennessy, and so is ready to move if the right opportunity comes up. And with Diageo’s portfolio of drinks brands, it could benefit enormously from LVMH’s existing distribution arrangements... in China!
2008 saw some devastating frosts around France, and especially in the Muscadet area of the western Loire. Frost of course reduces crop yields and thereby forces up prices.
But Muscadet has for some time been a price sensitive “brand”, especially on its export markets, and whilst most producers have held their prices, this has not been a happy position and many Muscadet producers are now going out of business. Since this year’s harvest alone, around 60 vignerons have filed for bankruptcy with up to another 150 more expected to go out of business shortly.
Muscadet does not enjoy the popularity it once did, and it was probably the 1970s that saw the start of the decline, especially once new appealing “fruit-driven” wines from Australia were being exported at low prices. The quality suffered, the image was damaged and now most producers cannot achieve the prices they would like.
I would add that our producer Chéreau-Carré is in a position of financial strength and still produces our excellent and delicious Muscadet Sur Lie. Priced at a very reasonable £4.40, it offers great value.
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Christmas and New Year Opening
- Before Christmas, the Ardres shop will be open as normal until 5pm on Thursday 23rd December.
- Between Christmas and the New Year, the Ardres shop will be open from 10am on the 29th to 6pm on the 31st December.
- After the New Year, the Ardres shop will reopen on Tuesday 4th January.
We will of course be delighted to see you whenever you choose to come within these dates!
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Boursot’s New Wines and New List
This month’s wine list contains some limited stock gems, so you might wish to have a look and take advantage by booking some of them for yourself. You can always see our latest list on this link and if you would like to print it, it’s available on this link.
We have bought some exciting new Burgundies from Domaines Boursot (in Chambolle-Musigny), Rossignol-Trapet (in Gevrey-Chambertin) and Faiveley (in Nuits Saint-Georges) as well as some exciting Rhone wines from Ogier in Châteauneuf du Pape. We have wines from practically every corner of France, showing off the country’s huge diversity of styles; we have something for everyone who enjoys French wines. Always of course at the very low French prices!
We also have a range of wines in wooden boxes, making smart gifts. For example, we have jeroboams of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and Minervois in wooden boxes at very sensible prices. Inevitably stocks of these unusual sizes are limited, so please tell us if you would like us to hold back stocks for you.
So many of you tell us that we have the right wines at the right prices and that we’re so much more exciting than the equivalent retail operation in Britain. We have found word of mouth to be our most powerful source of new customers and so, if you are happy with what we do, please help us by telling your wine loving friends. I shall be very grateful to you.
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An Offer for November
Our Offer this month is for a pair of contrasting whites and a pair of contrasting reds. Each of the wines is of super quality and you can rely on them all to give pleasure.
Chablis, Henri de Villamont, 2008 8,90€ reduced to 8,50€ (about £7.40)
This is a proper, classically made Chablis, not one of those wishy-washy wines from a supermarket that says “Chablis” on the label but that, judging by its (lack of) character, could come from anywhere.
Our wine from Henri de Villamont has found many friends over the last year, thanks to its typical “minerally” dry flavour that decent Chablis should have. This is a very good Chablis and is an ideal wine to give or to enjoy for Christmas.
Viognier, Domaine de Lascours, 2008 6,00€ reduced to 5,60€ (about £4.90)
Some might say that Viognier has an aroma that is reminiscent of apricots! Whichever adjective you may prefer, our wine from this small family run estate in the Pic Saint Loup of the Languedoc is dry but really refreshing and grapey - it goes well with lighter foods such as chicken, fish or even salads.
Good Viognier is seldom to be found cheaply, so this month’s offer on this lovely wine should make it an even greater proposition. You should take advantage.
Pinot Noir Réserve, Robert Faller & Fils, 2009 9,50€ reduced to 9,00€ (about £7,80)
Without saying so on their labels, Alsace Pinot Noirs tend to be divided into dark rosés and reds – Faller’s is of the “red” variety! Typically this Pinot Noir is lighter in style than, say, a wine from Burgundy, but with the same alluring fruity flavour. With plenty of soft juicy fruit, this is a serious Pinot wine that offers great value.
Cabernet Sauvignon, Organic, Domaine Bassac, Vin de Pays des Cotes de Thongue, 2009 5,90€ reduced to 4,50€ (around £3.90 per bottle)
This is a relatively new discovery to us and to help it along, we are reducing the price during November. The grapes are picked at optimum ripeness, so that our wine is deliciously flavoursome, whilst being soft and juicy - you can forget the Cab Sauv wines that are tough on the palate and smell of old boot leather. This organic Cabernet from Domaine Bassac will also be good to drink for another 5 years.
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 some extraordinarily attractive crossing rates! Whether it’s for our ever popular Petit Pont at under £3 a bottle or for a fine Margaux at around £15 a bottle, this is very much the time to stock up. What are you waiting for? A bientôt!
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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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