Newsletters
 October, 2013
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Bonjour
The main headings in this newsletter are shown below.
General
Today the euro rate is bobbing between 1.17 and 1.18 to the pound.
In case you didn't know it already, before VAT the UK duty has just been raised to £2.00 per bottle of still wine and £2.56 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 now being £5.03, 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 £0.03 per bottle! ! You get much more wine for your money in France.
Many of you say the same thing - voiced 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 3,30€ (around £2.80) 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.
We host some amazing wine dinners at some top local restaurants - and we have some especially entertaining ones coming up over the coming months. You should come, so see below for details.
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Boursot's Reduced Cross Channel Fares
We have arranged for you as a Boursot customer a reduced fare with P&O until the end of 2013. For a day trip or overnight trip (meaning returning before midnight the following day), your return fare will be just £22. There is a small supplement of £3 for travelling on a Saturday.
The Afternoon Return Fare is £19. This means departure after midday and returning before midnight. So, after buying your wines in Ardres, you will also be able to fit in some fine dining!
These special rates are exclusive to Boursot's and apply to a car and up to 4 passengers and can be accessed through this link or on the Offers page of our website. As always, there may be some specific £5 supplement days but provided there is availability and that you're travelling in a standard car, you will pay these low rates.
You should book at least 24 hours in advance so as to take advantage of this P&O offer. We hope you find this helpful.
Eurotunnel is running another series of mid-week half-price offers (£23 return) for travel on any Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday from 12th November to 12th December 2013. For further details, click on this link
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 any other Offer.
You may have seen that Eurotunnel has bought part of the old SeaFrance fleet, which has been smartened up and is being leased to a workers' group based in Calais. Having travelled on this line recently, I was struck by the improvement in quality of service over the old SeaFrance operation. Myferrylink.com is the name of the new company and you can now find some attractive prices with 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 the Christmas period).
We are very fortunate to be in an area with several good eating establishments at all different price levels, so do ask us if you would like a recommendation.
If you are a "foodie " we are pleased to bring you our Special Offer from the 4 star Hostellerie de 3 Mousquetaires which is just 30 minutes' south of Ardres on the outskirts of Aire sur la Lys. Here you will enjoy a cosy atmosphere and fine cuisine as many of you have discovered already. 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 would cost 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. We have heard glowing reports from those of you who have taken up this Offer. 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. Over recent months, we have heard several reports that the quality of cuisine has improved at Hotel Château Tilques, putting its fine food reputation back up where it was for so long. An establishment's reputation can so easily be dependent on the chef, but at the moment Tilques is scoring well!
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New in at our UK online boutique are some Cellar Books Made in Britain, these are unlike anything else on the market, being practical as well as aesthetically pleasing. They are hand bound with marble paper and are available in 3 different colours.
Click on the Cellar Book underlined link above to view more information. You will also see that they are on special introductory offer, through G&V in the UK until the end of October only, so take advantage now for your Christmas presents.
Otherwise they are available in the Ardres shop at the normal price, along with our other wine-related gifts such as USB flash drives disguised as corks, framed copies of our exclusive Nick Newman wine cartoons, natural wine soaps, wine map tea towels, silver tastevin cufflinks, decanters, Screwpull wine accessories and many more.
Do also take a look at the G&V Blog, which includes articles about wine, recipes using wine and product information. Please feel free to add your comments and suggestions, as we welcome interaction.
New items appear regularly so do please keep coming back or sign up via this page to receive direct updates via ezine or Twitter.
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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, one of us 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.
"Many thanks for arranging our recent visit to Ardres. Everyone enjoyed themselves so much they want to come again." CW, Fetcham U3A.
Recently we have restored 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 or other event for up to 35 people in our cellars, please say and we will be happy to reserve your space for you.
Additionally we have been pleased to incorporate some vineyard visits for some groups as part of their overall trip. Typically a visit to Champagne going behind the scenes and meeting the producers involving two nights, two dinners, two lunches and all visits starts at around £350 per person. So do ask us if a visit to a vineyard area could be of interest for your group .
And finally, I am of course happy to travel to you to present wine related events to your groups or dinners, or simply to be your after-dinner speaker with a difference! I have a lot of experience in this, and is one reason, I imagine, why many clients continue to ask me back year after year.
Do please contact me by phone or through my speaker website guy@boursot.com to explore your options.
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Forthcoming Boursot Events
Boursot's dinners are held for our British customers and so are of course always conducted in English. Pretty much everything is taken care of, starting with our specially arranged crossing prices with P&O, through to a bubbly reception, followed by a four course dinner designed to go well with five more wines. Generally, we have also arranged accommodation for you at advantageous rates, so that all you need do after dinner is totter upstairs (perhaps via the bar?)!
Boursot's Wine Collection is open on the Sunday mornings after a Saturday evening dinner and an exceptional 5% discount is then available on purchases of the wines that were served at the dinner.
All in all, the Boursot events are designed to be highly enjoyable while offering phenomenal value. We take a private room where we normally restrict numbers to around 40, so as to retain a friendly atmosphere. Great food, great wine and great company. All you need to do is to come along and enjoy!
Vegetarian and alternative food options can be provided, as long as we receive ample advance notice. If a planned guest speaker is unable to attend, we will endeavour to find another speaker and if none is available, Guy Boursot will present the talk. All our events are planned to be enjoyable, interesting and unstuffy.
Perhaps you have an anniversary to celebrate or you just want to get away for a quick change of scenery? As many of you have testified already, we make it easy for you to get away for a weekend with a difference. And of course, you are most welcome to bring some friends.
Please contact us on ardres@boursot.co.uk or on +33 321 36 81 46 to book for any of our events below.
Saturday 16th November: "The Business of Being a Wine Producer" presented by Nicolas Faller of Robert Faller et Fils, Ribeauvillé at Hotel Château Cléry, Boulogne
Many people say they'd love to own a vineyard, but come and hear about the financial possibilities and realities. Nicolas Faller is unusual inasmuch as he is an international banker while also managing the financial side of his family's wine business based in the picturesque town of Ribeauvillé in Alsace. He even has a hand in the winemaking!
This dinner at the lovely Château Cléry will look at the "business" side of being a family wine producer: the risks, the rewards, the financing requirements, the problems caused by working with products of finite supply - more so in some years than in others. But it will of course be entertaining as well!
In addition, Nicolas will explain the backgrounds to the specific red and white Faller wines being served with our 4 course dinner. I have worked with the Faller family for around 20 years, and have been proud to list a selection of their wines over the last 7 years. I feel their wines offer excellent value for their quality.
We believe this will provide you with a really interesting insight into "another side" of the wine business. And of course if you are one of those who loves Alsace wines, this is a "must do".
Tickets for our four course dinner and six wines and entertainment are 84€ (around £71) all-inclusive. As usual, we have blocked off a number of bedrooms at the hotel so do please say if you would like us to give you a room from our allocation. We have a few spaces remaining.
Sunday 8th December: Christmas Market Lunch at the Restaurant Francois Premier, 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.
It has recently come to my attention that for the first time in many years, the annual Turkey Festival held about 20 minutes away in Licques, will NOT be happening on the same day but on the following Sunday.
So, in place of that entertainment, we will have wines available to taste in our Ardres shop from 10.30 on the morning of Sunday 8th, and then we will go across to lunch at 12.30 at the François Premier which hardly needs any introduction, being one of the finest restaurants of this area. Being situated on Ardres' main cobbled square, you will be in front of much of the afternoon's action, so you may be able to watch some of it from the warmth of the restaurant!
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 59€ (around £50 at today's rate). I will tell you about the backgrounds of the wines being served.
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. Just say if you'd like us to point you towards decent local places to stay the night before, that night, or both.
This lunch is now sold out but you can of course still come to the other events during the day. As in previous years, we are maintaining a Waiting List for the lunch in case of cancellations.
Saturday 25th 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
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 has been enjoyed so much over the last couple of years that it has been brought back by popular request. It's a combination of a culinary class, a wine class and a Gourmet Dinner all rolled into a half day event.
The idea is not so much to be taught how to cook but to experience the kitchens of a Michelin starred restaurant and to pick up several useful culinary tips in the preparation of the dinner that you would come to enjoy that evening. This is tutored by David, chef proprietor of the hotel who speaks good English having cheffed at the Berkeley Hotel in London.
Running back to back with the cours de cuisine will be a wine masterclass 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 current global trends.
The price of the dinner will be 79€ (about £67) 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 the hotel is giving a special rate of 120€ per double room plus 10€ per person for breakfast. The two classes each of 90 minutes are 35€ per person.
We recommend that you reserve your places for this event as soon as you can.
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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 is a collection of my latest thoughts!
Now that the 2013 grapes are nearly all harvested across France, it has become increasingly clear that this is not a simple year to categorise. I have been talking over recent weeks with a number of vignerons to find out their own thoughts on their local harvests.
As you recall, we all had a cold spring and a grey wet June and this delayed the flowering and the vines' consequent growing cycle. There was also uneven ripening of grapes. During the warm July and August, some vines did catch up by a few days but across France at least, harvesting has been later than normal. A further problem has been that the summer came to a see-sawing end with rain alternating with warmth, thereby producing many problems of dampness and rot. And to cap these problems, there have been some specific areas where hail storms have wreaked havoc to vineyards.
In Alsace, Nicolas Faller says that they had been picking in and out of rain and there was a mad rush among all the local growers around Ribeauvillé to get the harvest completed by the end of last week, which they did. Several growers had been waiting to get more ripeness from their grapes but with intermittent rain, Nicolas felt that some possibly waited a little too long. In the end, sugar levels were good enough. Overall, quality was considered to be good, with perhaps Riesling coming out best but the yields were tiny with, for example, Gewurztraminer coming in at just 10 hectolitres per hectare against a norm of 40.
In the Loire, hail damage in Vouvray and Montlouis has scarred hectares of vineyards, leaving little or no yield for 2013, and probably a damaged crop for 2014. Coming after a reduced crop in 2012, we are now feeling the effects of this with, for instance, reduced allocations of Jacky Blot's spectacular dry Rémus from Montlouis and I am told that new customers are being turned away for reasons of shortage.
In the eastern Loire around Sancerre and Pouilly sur Loire (as in Fumé), it has been declared "certainly a good vintage" and the touch of botrytis towards the end of the season will give the Sauvignons in particular a slightly rounder and fuller style. Quantities have been described to me as average to good, so despite a very trying year, most producers around the eastern Loire seem to have triumphed.
Rénaud Richard, in charge of our excellent champagne producer Richard-Dhondt in Dizy, told us that the quality across Champagne appears to be excellent this year, although yields are reduced across several sub-areas due to hail and disease. Apparently the southern part of Champagne, around the Aube, was badly rained upon at harvest time and the quality of those crops is expected to have suffered.
In the Côte de Beaune of Burgundy, Frédéric Mazilly told me of his pleasure this year in bringing in a good quality crop of a decent volume. He felt that he had fared better this year than in 2012 when hail was particularly destructive. In 2013 the adjoining villages of Pommard and Volnay were the worst affected and the Côte de Nuits suffered some frost damage. In Burgundy's Côte de Nuits, quality looks to be very good – it is often said that whilst the Côte de Beaune suffers more from hail damage, then the Côte de Nuits can suffer more from frost damage. Nowhere is perfect!
Traditionally much more is written about Bordeaux than other French viticultural areas, because it is such an important investment market (although I am not so sure that it is quite so important from the average winelover's point of view!). After a cold and wet spring, the late and uneven flowering led to "millerandage", a problem in which individual grapes are of different sizes and at different stages of maturity. Many of these substandard grapes had to be removed, leading to a potentially smaller crop than normal.
Then summer cheered up and both July and August were warm and sunny. However, the important days of September and October almost alternated between being sunny and being wet, which encouraged rot among the grapes: fine if you are making sweet wine (and many good ones have been made this year) but not for dry whites and reds. Some of the slower developing Cabernets had not caught up in ripeness terms by the time they had to be removed from the vines a couple of weeks ago.
So, Bordeaux 2013 is less easy than normal to categorise. It is certainly a year with a small crop; there will be some good wines produced, some through good luck and others thanks to being able to afford the technology to make decent wines out of less than perfect raw product. But in my view it is unlikely that 2013 will feature in many Bordeaux investors' portfolios.
It was the same late weather problem in the Rhône, from which comes this report from one of our producers: "Despite the dramatically low crop, 2013 looks very promising and shows a beautiful elegant and delicate fruit on the nose at this stage of the vinifications. All the producers I have talked to are very happy about the quality of the wines but completely depressed when it comes to quantities. It will be difficult for some wineries to get over this challenge as they already have a very small crop with 2012, so there are going to be some cash flow tensions in the next 2 years."
And before you think that the problems are confined to France, look at Chile where they have just suffered the worst frost damage in 80 years, mostly affecting the early ripening grape varieties of Chardonnay, Merlot and Pinot Noir. The Chilean grape harvest will be in spring 2014.
All this is not good news for global wine prices; they can only go up.
Where is a gendarme when he's needed? The request for at least one member of the local constabulary has gone up a few times in the Champagne area this year, as a spate of thefts have left a number of smaller producers both deprived and bewildered. Local police were said to have been too slow and too disinterested to catch those responsible (now where have I heard this before?). A few producers' cellars have been plundered and as the busy season comes upon us, a number of high value champagne consignments are being reported as missing from road hauliers' "platforms".
Those of you who came to our Faiveley Burgundy dinner a couple of years ago will have heard from Philippe Ochin, their domestic market director, that the family-owned house of Faiveley was adopting a pioneering stance thanks to the foresight of the young new boss of the company, Erwan Faiveley, who succeeded his father François in 2006. After the hiring of a new winemaker and some impressive developments in their Nuits Saint-Georges cellars, Faiveley embarked on a mission of expanding its vineyard holdings. News has recently come in that Faiveley has recently acquired Domaine Dupont-Tisserandot in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, which takes their total holding in Gevrey up to 30 hectares (which is large by Burgundian standards). Domaine DT (!) has full flavoured, slightly tannic styles of red wine and these will now be brought more into line with the new Faiveley style which is softer and more accessible.
Burgundy negoçiants are not what they used to be – many of them are now major land owners around the scattered Bourgogne appellation.
The UK is still recognised as an important quality and quantity wine importer all across the wine world. However, growth of the UK wine market is expected to be slow in the coming five years as the economy recovers at a lower than expected growth rate, as well as from market competition and the UK Government's plans to reduce alcohol consumption, all of which will have a negative impact on further market growth.
New Zealand's exports of wine to the UK have been declining and this trend is expected to continue, as the UK's major retailers' price points become ever more difficult to adhere to. During 2012, the United States replaced the UK as New Zealand's second largest wine market.
France remains the largest exporter of wine into the saturated UK market, with exports of just over £1 billion, followed by Italy at £444m and Australia at £315m.
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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 might see you, increasingly many top domaines will only see you as part of an officially recognised group. In addition, many big producers have managed to dumb down their tours for tourists with absolutely no wine knowledge to such an extent that you would probably feel disappointed if you know anything about wine, as clearly you do. It is increasingly clear that you need a specialist to get you behind the doors that are closed to everyone else.
Having visited the quality vineyards over many years, I set up Over The Top Tours some years ago to share my experiences with groups of interested customers. So if you should like to visit one of France's viticultural areas, go to our vineyard tours company 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, Rhône and the South West are all areas that we visit and where we have great contacts who are happy to greet and inform you, as well as invite you to taste a wide selection of their wines.
Fine dining is also included as it goes hand in hand with good wine.
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. Do remember however that weekends, and especially Sundays, are often not good times for visits, as so many vineyards are small hands-on enterprises and do not employ teams of PR personnel to show you around!
Ideal sized groups are between 12 and 26 adults and typically two nights away with all meals and visits start at around £350. We do all the planning and make the bookings so all you will need do is to come along and enjoy a thoroughly memorable trip.
As you will see from our website, we also organise battlefield tours around northern France.
A couple of testimonials:
"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 think about the next place to take them another year. " JM
Our group of eight recently spent three days in Burgundy with the hope of trying to broaden our understanding of the wines and the region. Having used guides before we had found that guides can be overly technical and insist on telling you what they know rather than what you are interested in. Through Over The Top Tours we struck 'gold' and found their guide Ursula and in doing so found someone who really knows their subject matter but also someone who was all about making sure we enjoyed ourselves during the process as well which given our diverse group was not easy. It's fair to say that Ursula made our trip to Burgundy and we would all unreservedly recommend her and Over The Top Tours to anyone thinking of visiting Burgundy. ND - September 2013
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TripAdvisor, Twitter and E-mail
In case you thought that TripAdvisor was only for hotels and restaurants, think again! It is also there for " Things to do" and for " Shopping" so if you are particularly happy with what we do, please help us by telling others and post your comments on TripAdvisor. This link will take you directly to our page. Your positive input will be most gratefully received. In most cases, one does not know who the contributors are because they use a pen name, but to those 19 people who have already put up favourable reviews, thank you very much. It all helps.
Our Twitter address is @Boursots_Wine. If you are pleased with the quality of our wines or our service, or if you simply would like some personal advice on wines, do please feel free to Tweet us, and we will be pleased to respond.
Hotmail.com and aol.com have particularly vicious spam filters which reject many mailshots, even though you might have asked to be mailed. So if you know of another Boursot customer who is not receiving our monthly e-mails, please ask him or her to check with us - perhaps it's because of these filters that they are not receiving our mailings, but we can also check the address that we have on file. Also, if you are about to change e-mail provider, please don't forget to advise us of your new address, so we can update your records.
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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 continuous family lines in the wine world.
I was very pleased to learn a few months ago that the historian Rodney Gilbert had taken the Boursot family as a project and presented it to an audience in Australia - a small but significant part of my family's wine 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 speech 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 Boursot's latest list on this link and if you would like to print it, it's available on this link. The list is updated monthly but In the event that you see a previous version of the price list, try pressing Ctrl and F5 simultaneously on your computer so as to refresh the page.
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.
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New Wines This Month
Aside from the several vintage updates, here are the wines (all red this month) and a couple of spirits being added to our list this month. Full notes on each item can be found within our wine list.
| Saumur Champigny, Voltige des Clos, Domaine des Clos Maurice (Loire), 2012 | 7,80€ | £6.50 |
| Bourgueil, Le Haut de la Butte, Domaine de la Butte (Loire), 2012 | 12,50€ | £10.40 |
| La Chapelle de Potensac, Médoc (Claret), 2009 | 14,90€ | £12.40 |
| Château Cantenac, Grand Cru Saint-Emilion (Claret), 2009 | 20,30€ | £16.90 |
| Napoléon, Vieille Réserve, Premier Cru Cognac de Grande Champagne, Claude Thorin, 40% | 39,90€ | £33.30 |
| Calvados, 15 Years Old, Château du Breuil, Pays d’Auge, 41% | 44,40€ | £37.00 |
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Stocks
As stated earlier, 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 pick it up when you are able 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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Opening Hours during the year & Christmas and New Year
As you know, Boursot’s Wine Collection is open every day 10 to 6, except Sundays and Mondays, regardless of whether it’s either a French or British bank holiday.
However over this Christmas period, the Ardres shop will close at 5pm on Saturday 21st and reopen on Tuesday 31st December. After the New Year, the shop will open as normal from Tuesday 7th January.
As always, if you should like to come outside our opening hours, do please contact us so that something can be arranged.
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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. Thank you.
We do not advertise and it is unlikely that you will read a review on us in the British media. 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 help us by telling your wine loving friends, or tweet about us - or you could refer your friends to our " Receive Monthly Newsletter" button on the home page of www.boursot.co.uk. And 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 north of 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.
Jean-Bertrand, Antoine and I hope to see you here again very soon, whether it's for our delicious and easy to enjoy Petit Pont Réserve wines at just over £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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