Newsletters
 November, 2011
Dear Customer,
And so to our usual verbiage: our newsletters can be unfashionably verbose, so if you prefer to go straight to a particular topic, the main headings are below.
General
In case you should ever wonder, before VAT the UK duty currently stands at £1.81 per bottle of still wine and £2.32 on each bottle of sparkling wine. Add 20% VAT to both the duty and to the value of the wine and you have a very unhappy situation for UK wine drinkers. With the average sale price of a bottle of wine in the UK being £4.55, this means that just over 56% of the cost of that bottle is now consumed in tax.
Thanks to the automatic duty escalator, this will rise by inflation plus 2% from 1st January.
You may have read recently that the French government has raised duties and taxes in order to better balance its budgets. There has been no increase in the negligible rate of duty on wine, thanks to the country being a major supplier of wine both on the domestic and export markets. So, wine tax still remains at an almost non-existent rate of about 1.5 pence per bottle!
Many of you say the same thing but one happy customer said to me 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".
On our list you will see some net price comparisons between our wines and their net prices charged in the UK. You get a good selection of French wines here in Ardres with some huge savings.
You can rest assured that all the wines on the Boursot list, starting at just 2,90€ (around £2.50) 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.
With both numbers of customers and our sales volume increasing, these are very happy times for us in Ardres.
If you should like to come outside our normal opening hours, do please call or e-mail us. Sometimes 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 Reduced Cross Channel Fares
As explained below, we are not promoting SeaFrance this month until things become more clear.
However, as you may have seen from our Tweets, Eurotunnel is offering another series of £22 day returns on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from the 15th November until the 14th December. Click this link to find out more. The perfect time to come and get your wines for the festive season!
In case you didn’t know it already, we should also point out that Tesco clubcard points can be exchanged for Eurotunnel tickets, although they may not be usable in combination with this offer.
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SeaFrance
You may have heard that SeaFrance has ceased to be, but that would be a little premature to say and indeed, the boats are still running. The Tribunal de Commerce has given the union buyout option and DFDS/LDA until 16th November to improve their offers. So we wait to see the outcome. In the meantime we are not promoting our SeaFrance £25 day trip and 36 hour £35 offers just in case of the worst. We will keep you in the picture.
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Boursot's Hotel Offer
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. We hope you will find this helpful. 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 Christmas).
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 partying 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, through 2011 you will continue to receive 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 of course 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 that you mention Boursot's Wine Collection!
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Our new online wine gift boutique, Grapes & Vines Gift Designs, is based in the UK and is now delivering orders for Christmas. Click the link above to see the selection of items - from USB flash drives disguised as corks, to our exclusive Nick Newman framed wine cartoons, wine soaps, wine map tea towels, cufflinks, glassware, wine books, cellar books, label books, wine aerators, bottle chillers, wine buckets, tastevins, decanter cleaning balls ... and so the list goes on and this will continue to grow. These make ideal gifts for wine lovers and you can order these online and the items will be delivered to you at home within a few days.
Several of these items, which make ideal gifts, at our online store have been specifically designed and made for us. There are many more to appear yet, so do please keep looking!
Sign up here for the ezine, to read the blog or to sign up for tweets to learn of new items added.
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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, we would discuss your desired objectives for your event and then work backwards from there. We can liaise on your behalf with local restaurants and if required, hotels. Being locals, often we are allowed to provide our wines in restaurants at our shop prices and with no cost of "corkage" to you.
Depending on whether you would like it, I 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.
With our advantageous deals with SeaFrance as well as with local restaurants and hotels, you can really entertain your guests here in northern France at extraordinary value.
In addition of course, I am happy to travel to you to present wine related events to your groups or dinners.
Do please contact me by phone or on guy@boursot.com to explore your options.
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Forthcoming Boursot Events
All our customer lunches and dinners are of course held in English. Vegetarian and alternative food options can also be provided, as long as 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.
If a guest speaker is unable to attend, we will endeavour to find another speaker and if none is available, Guy Boursot will present the talk.
Boursot's Wine Collection is usually open on the Sunday morning after a Saturday night dinner.
Saturday 19th November: Dinner at Château Tilques: “Riesling and Gewürztraminer – the greatest grape varieties in the world?” Presented by Nicolas Faller from Ribeauvillé.
There are still some places available for this dinner.
Many people enthuse wildly about Riesling; many people also go into raptures about Alsace wines. We would have loved to have had an evening exclusively of Riesling but that might just have gone a little too far! So for the purposes of this dinner, we have also introduced Gewurztraminer and for our red wine, the Pinot Noir - all from the family house of Robert Faller & Fils in the picturesque town of Ribeauvillé. And who better to introduce his wines and talk about the current developments than Monsieur Faller himself?
The name of Faller is legendary among quality wine producers in Alsace. The house was founded in 1697 and the business as propriétaire-viticulteur has been passed down from father to son to this day. Faller has many valuable hectares of Grand Cru vineyards dotted around Ribeauvillé, growing all the main grapes but arguably working best with Riesling and Gewürztraminer.
The Riesling grape in particular has of late been enjoying a renaissance among aficionados for its unique and different style. We will be enjoying Rieslings and Gewürztraminers from simple to the top, Grand Cru, level as well as some late harvest sweet wines, demonstrating the grapes’ versatility.
As usual, we have blocked off a number of bedrooms at the 4 star Hotel Chateau Tilques for this dinner, so please let us know if you would like to stay so we can allocate you a room at our advantageous rate of 159€ per double room with breakfasts included.
Four courses and seven wines and all entertainment will be 79€ per person.
Sunday 11th December: Christmas Market Lunch at Restaurant La Griotte, Ardres
Our Christmas Lunch is perhaps the fun highlight of the year and this year we are dining at the Restaurant La Griotte on the green in Ardres where the owner Madame Dacheville cooks very good, honest and uncomplicated food. This lunch comprising four courses and six wines at 55€ per person all-inclusive is now officially sold out but in case of cancellations, we are starting a waiting list.
However, you can still come for a day of pre-Christmas fun.
From 10am that day, the annual Turkey Festival will be held about 20 minutes away in Licques, a village famed for its outdoor reared chickens and turkeys. Here, a flock of local turkeys is "shepherded" up the main street. Dotted along the route you can enjoy stew served from a huge steaming cauldron, eat roasted meat from street barbecues and you can even try out "Licquoise", a fiery local liqueur that will help to keep you warm. All for free. There are musicians and confrères and there is also a simple Christmas Market brimming with local produce. It is all typically "local French".
Then I suggest come and have lunch in Ardres and then "do" its Christmas Market in the afternoon, by which time everyone's spirits and the general atmosphere will have warmed up! Père Noël (Father Christmas, not the local priest!) is normally to be found abseiling down the church spire at around 6pm throwing goodies to all the children assembled below.
This is an inexpensive fun day out and accommodation can of course be arranged for you in and around Ardres, should you wish to stay over.
Saturday 28th January: Boursot's "Blues Buster" Gourmet Dinner: Venue to be arranged
January is when most of us need a bit of cheering up. So, on the weekend of the 28th we will be hosting a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable day in the cosy surroundings of the newly purchased and refurbished Three Musketeers. This hotel is now back on top form; we have hosted a couple of dinners here ourselves or for other groups and have been excited by the quality of cuisine from David Wojtkowiak who, among other accolades used to chef at the (new) Berkeley hotel in London – a fine reference indeed!
This event will be a little different! During the Saturday afternoon, David Wojtkowiak will host (in English of course!) a cookery masterclass whilst Guy Boursot will host a wine masterclass which will incorporate a small tasting. All this will be held within the hotel.
That evening, the theme for the dinner looks as if it will be along the lines of “Food and Wine Matching – does it matter?”. The 4 course dinner served with 6 wines will be at the all-inclusive price of 74€ (about £63) and the classes will be charged separately, details of which will be available soon.
This is expected to be a popular event and we urge you to book early, as inevitably spaces are limited. The various aspects of this event are being pulled together but if you are interested in principle, I suggest you tell us as soon as possible so that we can pencil down your name. If you wish to come simply for the dinner, that’s no problem.
Saturday 17th March: “Grand Cru Champagne” presented by Benoit Marguet at Hotel Château Tilques, Saint-Omer
Please note that we have changed the date of this event.
We are very pleased to tell you that the charismatic and highly respected Benoit Marguet of the Grand Cru producer Champagne Marguet in Ambonnay will be our guest speaker this evening. He will talk about the current developments in Champagne and will answer any questions you may have. Benoit is a proud defender of the concept of “terroir” which defines the various differences between so many wines around the world.
This will be an evening to remember, comparing several different styles of champagne over dinner and being led by a true champagne professional.
We have blocked off a number of bedrooms at the 4 star Hotel Chateau Tilques for this dinner, so please let us know if you would like to stay so we can allocate you a room at our advantageous rate of 159€ per double room with breakfasts included.
More precise details of the evening will appear shortly but the price for the four course dinner will be 89€ (about £77 at today’s rate).
Saturday 29th April: Hotel Atlantic, Wimereux
A beautiful and major new wine bookhas recently been published and indeed, we now have our stocks available for you to buy through this link.
“Tong” (the Flemish for Tongue) has for a while been producing quarterly publications about wine. With its articles written by wine professionals, whether they be winemakers or masters of wine, I have found it to be a source of useful and interesting information. What is refreshing is that this “magazine” (for lack of a better word) is written and edited in a no-nonsense and impartial style:
without any of the gush and sensation that adorns more “popular” wine magazines. As a matter of policy, it also carries no advertising, which helps to reinforce my view that this is a serious publication.
Tong is now producing its first book called “Wine” (!) which will guide everyone, whether novice or professional. I believe that this 288 page book is a must-buy for anyone who has an interest in wine, and that at just £26, it also offers super value. Chapters include: What does good wine taste like? How do I choose wine from a supermarket shelf? Further chapters contain more in-depth knowledge: How to combine wine with food? What is the vine like? How does climate influence a wine's taste? What really happens in a winery? And much more.
Filip Verheyden is co-author and publisher of Tong and he will be our guest presenter this evening. With his outspoken attitude towards wine (and food), you should find this evening both refreshing and illuminating.
Tickets for this Gourmet Dinner are 89€ (around £77) per person to include a bubbly reception, a five course dinner and five more wines. And of course some top discussion! We have blocked off rooms at the Atlantic and there are also plenty of other hotel rooms within easy walking distance.
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News in 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.
Whilst giving several talks in England and France over the last month, a question has been asked regularly and that is whether the Chinese can produce decent wine.
In response, there has been plenty of ordinary wine made in China for centuries but in a country of such a size, there are several soils and micro-climates that can and do lend themselves to viticulture, the cultivation of the vine.
I remember talking to a Chinese vine grower 20 years ago and he told me that his biggest problem was trying to convince his workforce not to pick every grape in sight and that selection was the key to making better quality wine. As always what is needed to produce good quality is serious investment and much of this is now being channelled into Chinese wineries. China is already the world’s seventh largest wine producer and with only 3% of the population drinking (grape) wine currently, the potential is enormous. New vineyards are being developed with every passing month and recently, shock horror to the traditional world, a Chinese Cabernet Sauvignon, Jia Bei Lan 2009, won the Decanter magazine prize for Best Cabernet in the World, beating 500 wines from Bordeaux. For the moment, this is almost certainly the exception rather than the rule but I feel that the writing is appearing clearly on the wall.
In the first four months of 2011 we have seen the Chinese buy six châteaux in Bordeaux and in a couple of these instances, it was announced that the entire production would from hereon bediverted towards China to fuel the burgeoning demand. Wine is seen as stylish in China, as it is in almost every rising economy.
Another phenomenon I observe with some regularity is how the same wines can taste so very different from one day to another. I’m not talking here about leaving bottles open overnight but about tasting freshly opened bottles of the same wines on consecutive days. This goes right to the
root of the bio-dynamic discussion started by Rudolf Steiner back in the 1920s.
The theory is that wines seem to taste different according to whether the specific day on which you are tasting is a fruit day, a flower day, a leaf day or a root day - determined by the relative positions of the moon, stars and planets. Whilst this can all too easily be dismissed as mumbo jumbo, it is interesting to remember that many farmers have believed in such traditional principles as sowing certain crops under a waning moon or harvesting at other specific times. Also worth noting is that many of the UK’s major supermarkets choose to show off their wines to the press only on fruit or flower days! Curious, oui?
I have been travelling around several of our French vineyards in recent weeks and there is certainly no misery among the many vineyards with whom we work. The problem is more about being able to supply the quantities demanded by a quality minded clientele.
What was clear from several visits was that the potential quality of the 2011 harvest is excellent in the Rhône and the Languedoc where there was in general enough rain in the early part of 2011 to top up local water tables – in an area where the question of drip irrigation is being openly discussed for the production of Appellation Contrôlée wines. Currently it’s not legal and of course many producers are fearful of its cost of installation when it does come – which it surely will. The Rhône wines are suffering from excessive global demand. In Champagne there was good quality but a reduction in quantity. In Burgundy, there were reports of damaged crops: thus reduced yields.
Inevitably some prices will creep up over the coming months - especially from these areas of Burgundy, Champagne and the Rhône. Turning then to the UK, the British Treasury will apply its “Automatic Duty Escalator” to wine at 2% above inflation (at 5%?) and it seems as if 2012 might not be too happy for wine drinkers in Britain. I hardly need to remind you that the way around this is to buy your wines in Ardres where there is next to no duty!
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Twitter
Our address is @Boursots_Wine. Do please feel free to mention us and our wines if you are happy with what we do, and we will be pleased to retweet your comments to our own followers.
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Boursot's New List
You can always see our latest list on this link and if you would like to print it, it's available on this link.
Wines that have returned to our list include Rully and Montagny Premier Cru from Buxy, the Les Sétilles Chardonnay from our friends at Olivier Leflaive, the Lubéron wine from Chapoutier, and a Vacqueyras from the Châteauneuf du Pape based house of Ogier.
On the other hand, among new items to appear are a Premier Cru Chablis from Domaine Laroche, a Séléction de Grains Nobles Gewürztraminer dessert wine from a Grand Cru in Alsace, a sweet red dessert wine, Maury, that can actually pair well with dark chocolate, an inexpensive 2006 claret from Fronsac, three new wines from the Margaux appellation culminating in the delightful Château Kirwan. Also new is a gorgeous Beaune Premier Cru and if you enjoy spirits, you will appreciate our new 8 year old Calvados from our regular supplier as well as a 1995 Glenlivet single malt whisky (yes, I know it’s not French, but it is unique!).
There will be quite a few new wines purchased during October for inclusion in our next list.
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Special Offer for November
Whilst stocks are available, we are pleased to hold open our offer to you:
50cl bottles of the very popular Château de Sours Rosé, 2010 at a one-off price of 3,90€. Equating to 5,85€ (around £5 at today’s rate) per 75cl bottle, this makes a saving of an additional 1€ over our normal shop price (let alone the considerably higher UK bottle price of £9.99 “reduced on Special Offer” to £8.49 – ha, ha!). Total saving over the UK’s “special offer” price at one of the major retailers is £2.64 per bottle!
This half-litre size will produce 4 good glasses – ideal sometimes as a lunchtime or evening drink for two people when a bottle seems a little too much!
This is a bargain so as always it’s first come, first served...
An Unusual Offer for Mulling: We have had a minor problem with one of our red wines and we took it off sale a couple of weeks ago. The wine is being replaced with its new vintage but with the cost of transport as it is, the vineyard has decided in its infinite wisdom not to take back our old stock. Whilst stocks last, we are happy to offer existing customers who spend more than 200€ in one transaction, a free six bottle case of this red. There is nothing seriously wrong with this wine – but I have simply rejected it because it is not as good as it has been. I recommend that this wine be used for mulling and not for drinking by itself.
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Stocks
Inevitably our stocks rise and fall according to the season. If there is something that attracts your eye in our current list, do call or e-mail us and we shall be pleased to put some stock on one side for you, so as to guarantee that you can have it for when you want to visit.
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 and Minervois, most of which are in wooden boxes at very sensible prices. They make great gifts.
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In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, 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, is finding a wider audience with each passing month. This has been a fantastic year for us and I would like to thank you for helping us in your own way. Thank you so much.
We do not advertise and it is very unlikely that you will read a review on us in the British media, but 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 continue to help us by telling your wine loving friends, or tweet or blog about us - or you could refer them to our “Receive Monthly Newsletter” button on the home page of www.boursot.co.uk. 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.
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.
We are open from 10 to 6 from MONDAY to SATURDAY, and we do not close for lunch. Please let us know if you should like to visit outside these hours. Sometimes it is possible to open up or to leave your order nearby for you to collect - and we have a secure web page on which you can leave your card details.
Over the Christmas period, we will be closed between the 24th and the 28th December and will reopen after the New Year from Thursday 5th January.
We hope to see you here again very soon, whether it’s for our delicious and easy to enjoy Petit Pont Réserve wines at around £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,
Yours sincerely,
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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