Newsletters
 November, 2012
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
The price of shopping in France has been coming down, with a weakened euro against the pound. Today the euro rate is around 1.25 to the pound.
In the meantime, the price of shopping in France has been coming down, with a weakened euro against the pound. Today the euro rate is around 1.25 to the pound.
In case you should ever wonder, before VAT the UK duty currently stands at £1.90 per bottle of still wine and £2.43 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 around 60% of the cost of that bottle is now consumed in tax.
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 an almost non-existent rate of around £0.02 per bottle!
Many of you say the same thing -epitomised 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".
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 2,90€ (around £2.30) 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.
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Boursot's Reduced Cross Channel Fares
Eurotunnel is once again running its "half price" promotion on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 13th November and 13th December. That's £22 return for a car and its passengers, although you will not be wanting to bring too many people, as you will need plenty of capacity for your Boursot wine purchases! Further details can be found through this link.
We have a special favourable Boursot crossing rate with P&O for our customers. In addition, what P&O has done is to offer you the same rate for a Day Return as for an Overnight Stay (meaning returning before midnight the following day). So if you have a longer drive from Britain or Ireland, or simply want to take it easy, you can book at this advantageous rate at no premium. And if you should have a need, we can always help you with ideas of where to stay in the locality.
Assuming you book through this through this link, for a car and up to 9 passengers, prices are from £22 for travel every day except Saturday when the rate will be £25. There may be some specific supplement dates but provided there's availability and that you're travelling in a standard car, you will pay these low rates. This link is also accessible through the Offers page of our website.
For those of you in the South East who simply want to hop across and collect your wines, there is also an Afternoon Rate of £19, meaning leaving after midday and returning before midnight. So, after buying your wines, you will also be able to fit in some fine dining!
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 an existing Offer.
You may have seen that Eurotunnel has bought part of the old SeaFrance fleet. They are said to have smartened up the ships and they are leasing them to a (hopefully better behaved!) workers' group based in Calais. Myferrylink.com is the name of the new company and in time, you should expect to see some attractive offers coming from 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 Christmas).
If you are a "foodie" we are pleased to bring you a new offer from the 4 star Hostellerie de 3 Mousquetaires which is about 30 minutes' south of Ardres in Aire sur la Lys. Here you will enjoy a cosy atmosphere and fine cuisine as some of you will recall after some of our spectacular dinners there in January. 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 costs 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 92€ per person. 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 will receive reduced rates at the 4 star Hôtel Château Tilques between here and Saint-Omer, 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.
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Our UK online wine-related gift boutique, Grapes & Vines Gift Designs, continues to grow. There are all sorts of wine related goodies - from USB flash drives disguised as corks, framed copies of our exclusive Nick Newman wine cartoons (that you may have admired in our shop), natural wine soaps, wine map tea towels, sterling silver tastevin cufflinks, claret jug decanters, electric corkscrews as well as many more wine accessories. A novel recent arrival is a chandelier made up of wine glasses! All these make great presents for wine lovers and you can order these online and the items will be delivered to you at home within a few days. Many of these items are also available to look at in our Ardres shop from where you can of course collect.
Several gifts have been specifically designed and made for us, so you will not find them elsewhere. There are many more items to appear so do please keep looking or sign up via this page to receive direct updates via ezine or Twitter. The Blog is constantly adding new articles and the wine related ones have been written by yours truly.
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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, 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.
As you will have read in our last newsletter, we have been restoring the vaulted cellars under our shop so that you can now enjoy tastings, presentations or general events down there. If you should be interested in holding a tasting for up to 35 people, please say and we will be happy to reserve your space for you.
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 or through my speaker website 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 17th November: Bordeaux Dinner – "Up to Margaux" with Pierre Brousse-Schyler of Château Kirwan, 3ème cru classé Margaux. At Hôtel Château Tilques near Saint-Omer
This will be one of our "great" dinners: we are honoured to have with us the head man from one of the most respected chateaux in Bordeaux. Classified as a 3rd growth in 1855, Château Kirwan in Margaux is nowadays back on top form, producing some stunning and widely acclaimed wines.
This will be another of our "great" dinners: we are delighted that the owner of one of the best quality châteaux in Bordeaux, Château Kirwan in Margaux, will be our guest presenter. Classified as a 3rd growth in the 1855 classification, this château is nowadays producing some stunning and widely acclaimed wines.
Our venue will be the four star Hôtel Château Tilques between Ardres and Saint-Omer and because this will be such a major Boursot dinner, we will be trialling menus beforehand to ensure the highest possible quality of food to go with the great wines.
You can of course ask Monsieur Brousse about all matters Bordelais and I'm sure that he will be up for a bit of lively discussion! Tickets for this Gourmet Dinner are 84€ (around £67) per person for this four course dinner. At the last count, it looks as if we will be comparing a pair of dry whites at our reception, moving on to four reds from Château Kirwan, and finishing up with a Premier Grand Cru Classé Barsac. This should be a winelover's dream.
This dinner is now sold out.
Sunday 9th December: Ardres' Christmas Market and Boursot's Christmas Lunch at La Griotte, Ardres
Ah, it's the season of Christmas markets in Europe! So easily accessible from Britain, the town of Ardres always injects some fun and colour into an otherwise grey time of the year.
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".
And then to lunch at La Griotte on the green in Ardres, which provides great quality "home cooking". The informal four course lunch will be preceded by a bubbly reception and then accompanied by a further five Boursot wines, and everything costs just 55€ (around £44 at today's rate).
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 a fun day out and for many, makes a great start to the Christmas season. This lunch is now sold out, but there is no reason why you cannot still come to the Christmas Market and other activities. There are plenty of restaurants in Ardres and its surrounding area – and of course our shop will be open!
Saturday 26th January: Boursot's "Blues Buster" Gourmet Afternoon and Dinner presented by David Wojtkowiak and Guy Boursot at Hotel Les Trois Mousquetaires, Aire sur la Lys
As soon as news circulated about the success of last year's Blues Buster event at the Three Musketeers, we were asked when we might repeat our formula of culinary classes, wine classes and a Gourmet Dinner combined in one event.
The idea is not so much to be taught how to cook but to experience the kitchens of a quality restaurant and be given several useful culinary tips in the preparation of the dinner that we would come to enjoy that evening. This is tutored by David, chef proprietor of the hotel who speaks English having cheffed in London.
At the same time, there will be wine masterclasses during which you can taste and compare wines from several different areas across France and learn about what is going on behind the scenes in each of these areas and more generally with the global trends.
The price of the dinner will be, as last year, 74€ (about £59) per person. We have blocked off bedrooms at the hotel, so please say if you would like to take up a room from our allocation. For this occasion they are giving a special rate of 120€ per double room plus 10€ per person for breakfast.
Just when you thought that winter couldn't get any more grey and bleak at the end of January, here's something to introduce a bit of colour and entertainment!
This event is 50% sold already so we suggest reserving your places as soon as you can.
Saturday 16th March: Boursot's Dinner at Les Terrasses de l'Enclos, Boulogne Old Town
This is an attractive new venue for us in Boulogne's Old Town. The cuisine here is good and for our dinner we have blocked off all 5 bedrooms in this charming Boulonnais townhouse, so if you'd like us to allocate you one of our rooms, please say so at the time of booking. Alternatively there is a wide variety of hotels in Boulogne within easy walking distance. First come, first served!
We hope to announce the theme of this dinner shortly.
You can book now for any event shown above.
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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 are my latest thoughts!
The 2012 harvest will long be remembered as a difficult year that produced small quantities; some will call it "a winemaker's vintage"! In 2012, European vineyard owners saw every type of problem imaginable, ranging from hail to frost and from botrytis to mildew.
It is difficult to categorise the quality of the areas in simple terms, because in 2012 there were so many localised storms; for instance in the relatively tiny area of Burgundy, there is a distinct difference in the results from the Côte de Nuits and the adjacent Côte de Beaune. But to try and generalise, it seems that quality around France was respectable but the yield has been proclaimed the smallest in almost 40 years. It does not take a mathematician to work out that this will lead to increased prices and indeed, we are seeing some prices hardening already. Even in countries as far afield as New Zealand and Chile, yields are down too. However I hear that California has produced wine in both good quantity and quality in 2012. In a world where wine production volumes have been falling while consumption has continued to rise, this year's shortage is not good news: there's really not a lot of spare capacity.
We have already seen the price of fruit and vegetables rising as a result of this year's bad weather and I'm afraid to say that wine prices will follow shortly in the same vein: a timely reminder that despite its current global democracy, wine is still produced from a harvest governed by dear old Mother Nature.
I was told recently by the chairman of one of London's well-reputed fine wine merchants that he was worried that 2013 would be a difficult year in the UK wine trade in particular. He cited a shortage of stock to sell, an uncertain economic outlook and anticipated further duty increases as being his prime concerns.
At Boursot's we feel cautiously optimistic. We feel that we are in a good position and will be able to secure good stocks from our established suppliers and continue to offer you guaranteed quality wines at the most sensible prices available.
Port producers are unhappy at the moment following two consecutive small harvests of the wine grapes used to distil into the brandy that is added to fortify Port wines. Coupled with the EU's reduction of grants for distillation, these low yields are leading to substantially higher spirit prices that will feed through into a minimum 10% increase in port prices next year. With Europe's high cost of grape production and a low return from distillers, much of the production of these base wine grapes is expected to be taken up by emerging countries such as Brazil, India and China – yes, them again!
In the UK wine business there have been three major corporate failures recently in the wine agency and wholesaling sectors. Wholesalers need to maintain large stocks of a very wide range of wines and spirits, offering efficient delivery and back-up services whilst offering extended credit terms to an often less-than-financially-robust wholesale sector. Such a cocktail inevitably leads to heavy demands on cash – and as is common knowledge, 2012 has not been a great year in Britain to find additional financing. Regularly I hear from fellow wine traders in Britain of "difficult trading conditions"; I sense that the casualties are only just beginning to pile up.
In Italy, the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to allow screwcaps to be applied to DOCG (the equivalent of France's AC, or Appellation Contrôlée, system) wines. However this will not be permitted if their labels show the name of a vineyard or sub zone, which would intimate a tighter provenance and probable higher quality. As I have said here before, it would be wrong to assume that screwcaps are necessarily the best bottle closures. They are great for young wines that need to be served fresh, but keeping a red wine under screwcap for a long period can sometimes produce odours of rotten eggs.
Cork, when it is right, is considered to be the best closure for wines that are to be aged over a longer period. However cork taint affects between 2% and 3% of modern bottles and whilst that may not sound a very high percentage, there is nothing more frustrating than opening a special bottle kept over several years, only to find that it smells and tastes of cork rather than the fine wine flavour one had bought. It happens much less than it did 10 years ago, but it does still happen from time to time.
Being a multi-billion pound industry, the various closure companies are working hard to produce the ultimate (semi-permeable, sterile, consistent and environmentally-friendly) closure that will allow wine to be served fresh when young and taint-free when mature. Plastic, screwcap or cork: one day there will be the ultimate closure, but for now it is in my view too early to draw any real conclusions about good, better or best!
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Bio-Dynamic Calendar
As hard to comprehend as it all seems, so many top vineyards around the world are now practicing bio-dynamic viticulture that it is increasingly difficult to ignore this phenomenon. And over recent months, researchers in Germany have stated categorically that bio-dynamic wines do taste better than conventionally made wines. It is not for nothing that most major British supermarket chains only show off their wines to the Press on "Fruit"or "Flower"days! The other two elements "Root"and "Leaf"do not produce "bad"days as such, but you may find that your wines do not taste quite so open and fruity on these days.
On our home page at www.boursot.co.uk we show an indicator as to how your wines might taste today! There is then a link in the panel which will take you to an article "wot I wrote"in which I have tried to précis some information on this curious phenomenon which remains largely unproven scientifically.
Treat our indicator as a talking point and as a bit of fun - you tell me if you have noticed any difference between tasting the same wines on different element days!
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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 will see you, many of the top domaines will only see you as part of an officially recognised group.
So if you should like to visit one of France's viticultural areas, do go to our vineyard tours company on 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 and Rhône are all areas that we visit and where we have great contacts who are happy to greet us and let us taste a wide selection of their wines.
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. We do all the planning and booking for you and our all-in prices are surprisingly reasonable (probably unbeatable!) - all you will need do is to come along and enjoy a memorable trip.
As a testimonial from one of our recent trips for 24 people to Burgundy, just take a look at this:
"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 look for somewhere else to take them another year." JM -June 2012
Twitter and TripAdvisor
Our Twitter 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.
We were pleasantly surprised to find recently that shopping experiences were also included under TripAdvisor. This was after a happy customer posted a complimentary remark about her experience here. So, again, if you are happy with what we do, please help us by telling others by posting your comments there.
Your positive input will be most gratefully received.
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The Boursot Family History
As you probably know, I am fortunate enough to come from a very long family line in the wine business, passed from father to son continuously since the mid-16th century. Indeed it is one of the longest family lines in the wine world.
I was very pleased to learn some weeks ago that the historian Dr. Rodney Gilbert had taken the Boursot family as a project and given a presentation in Australia on my family's history since the 18th century. Rodney Gilbert has extra-ordinary access to international historical records and with a keen eye to detail, he sent me a copy of his presentation which took the theme "History captured in a 150 year old 1862 photo - The Boursot Family". As an insight into European social history, I believe this makes a very "interesting read" on www.boursot.co.uk/boursot_history.html and I hope that you too might enjoy it.
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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. In case you are seeing an old version of the price list, try pressing Ctrl and F5 simultaneously on your computer so as to refresh the page.
This November list is probably the most comprehensive list of the year for all the obvious reasons, but it will hereon begin to contract again until April of next year. 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.
New items this month:-
| Château Coutet, Premier Grand Cru Classé, Barsac-Sauternes (Bordeaux), 2006 | 44,90€ £35.40 |
| Château Labat, Cru Bourgeois, Haut-Médoc (Claret), 2009 In wooden cases | 14,80€ £11.70 |
Returning wines this month:-
| Chablis Saint-Martin, Domaine Laroche (Chablis), 2011</b> | 12,30€ £9.70 |
| Montlouis Sec, Rémus, Domaine de la Taille aux Loups (Loire), 2011 | 12,90€ £10.20 |
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Stocks
As stated above, 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. As with our wine-related accessories, these make beautiful and unusual gifts.
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Christmas and New Year Opening Times
Open as normal 10 to 6 MONDAY to SATURDAY up until Saturday 22nd December.
After Christmas the Ardres shop will be open again on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th December and then as normal from Saturday 5th January 2013.
As always if you are in the area outside these dates and would like to pick up some wine, please e-mail on ardres@boursot.co.uk and we can open up or arrange a convenient nearby collection point for you.
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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.
We do not advertise and it is 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 your friends to our "Receive Monthly Newsletter" button on the home page of www.boursot.co.uk. Or 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.
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 (even if it's a French or British bank holiday), and we do not close for lunch.
If you are returning from a holiday, Boursot's Wine Collection is situated just off the old main north-south road (RN943) and 5 minutes off Junction 2 of the A26. Then from Ardres to the port or the tunnel in Calais takes 15 minutes. 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.
We 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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