Newsletters
October 2015
Bonjour!
The main headings in this newsletter are shown below.
General
At the moment the euro rate is at around 1.36 to the pound.
As you may know already, the rates of UK duty before VAT are £2.05 per bottle of still wine and £2.63 on each bottle of sparkling wine. This tax forms part of the cost price, so retailers have to calculate their margin on that higher cost, so the difference becomes even greater. Add 20% VAT then to both the duty and to the value of the wine and you have ... a really unhappy situation for UK wine drinkers.
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 remains at a comparatively non-existent rate of around 3p per bottle! You get a lot more wine for your money in France.
With the average sale price of a bottle of wine in the UK being £5.03, this means that around 65% of the cost of that bottle is now consumed in tax.
Some of you enjoy the lower expenditure while others spend the same on your bottle as you might in the UK, but by buying at Boursot's Wine Collection in France, you get a far superior quality and value. With a range starting at under £3 per bottle, Boursot's has developed a reputation for offering a wide range of French wines of reliably good quality and value. Boursot's Wine Collection has taken some of the confusion and risk out of seeking and buying decent French wines, and with its British owner and English speaking staff, you will always receive good advice. And most of the time you can taste the wines as well.
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 3,80€ (around £2.70) 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.
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".
We host a number of high quality wine dinners at some top local restaurants - and we have some especially entertaining events coming up over the coming months. You should come, so please look in the relevant section below for more details.
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.
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Our new Marquise Shop and Warehouse
Finally all the refurbishment work has been completed at our second location in Marquise, and last week we held our Launch party (for the local French!). We would now like to invite you (see below under Forthcoming Events) to our Marquise Launch Day Lunch and Tasting.
Our new shop warehouse is less than a minute off the A16 motorway at Marquise, north of Wimereux and Boulogne, and just 15 minutes from the tunnel. It is very easy to access and it has ample free parking. If you are headed to Boulogne, Le Touquet, Montreuil, Normandy or Paris, why not pre-order your wines which we can get ready for your arrival so that you can be loaded up and on your way again within seconds?
There are several attractions to Marquise, being only 10 minutes away from the picturesque seaside village of Wissant with its various restaurants and one of the finest sandy beaches of the northern coastline. You will find a list of local places to eat and places to stay on this link.
Work on the façade of our building is in progress right now, and we will keep updating its photo on the home page of www.boursot.co.uk as it changes. Signage will be up shortly but you can find detailed directions on www.boursot.co.uk/directions.html complete with a Google map. Work should be finished by the third week of September.
As one of our regular customers said recently "The new outlet is larger, lots of parking, so convenient to get to, three supermarkets very close by. The town has good shops, the butcher is a must. The bar opposite the butchers is very friendly." (JB, Glos)
Opening hours for Marquise are marginally different, being Monday to Saturday 10.30 - 5.30 and it is NOT open on French bank holidays.
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Boursot's Reduced P&O and Eurotunnel Fares
In case you had been intimidated by some of the media’s easy headline-seeking exaggeration, in line with what we hear almost every day, here is corroboration from one customer who recently brought a group of 35 to us. And in case you had any doubts, crossing the channel is safe!
Guy, As we said the papers exaggerate. We had no problems in fact we caught the Shuttle 1 hr before the one we were booked on. No sign of any trouble. Best wishes. Charles
We have arranged for you as a Boursot customer reduced fares with P&O until 31st March 2016. For a day trip or overnight trip (meaning returning before midnight the following day), your return fare will be just £23. There is normally a small supplement between £3 and £5 for travelling on a Saturday.
The Afternoon Return Fare is £19, meaning departure after midday and returning before midnight. So, after buying your wines in Ardres, you should also be able to fit in some fine dining!
These special rates are exclusive to Boursot's and apply to on-line bookings for a car and up to 4 passengers and can be accessed through this link or on the Offers page of our website.
Our promotional code is BOURSOT (case sensitive). 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.
P&O has had some trouble with its recently revitalised website and so if you do not succeed as above, please call 01304 448888 (high phone charges will not apply) to make your booking and you will not be charged the £5 telephone booking fee.
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.
If you are spending more than 650€ on wine to collect from our Marquise store, we also have our advantageous £25 Day Return with Eurotunnel valid to book before the end of October but valid for travel for a regular car until the end of 2015. Details may be found 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.
So, if you have the time and feel as if you want to feel like you’re getting away, the boat is a relaxing way to travel. But if you want a generally efficient 35 minute journey under the water, then the tunnel is the way.
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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. You will also now find a list of similar places close to our Marquise store.
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 certain days over the Christmas period).
We are very fortunate to be in an area with many good eating establishments at all different price levels, so do ask us if you would like a recommendation.
Until the end of November, the excellent Restaurant François Premier opposite our shop is offering Boursot customers a quick 2 course lunch at 19€ (about £14!) with a glass of red, white or rosé wine included. You will probably know already of the quality of this, Ardres’ best reputed restaurant and indeed you only have to look at TripAdvisor to see its reports and ratings. This Offer is exclusive to Boursot customers so we suggest you e-mail us your reservation and we can then pass it on.
We are pleased to bring you a new partnership with the Michelin starred Hôtel La Matelote opposite Nausicaa on the sea front in Boulogne sur Mer where as well as its great position, the food is of notably high quality. The hotel also has a swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna and hammam. The Offer comprises dinner for 2 (the Saveurs de la Mer menu) and a night in a "Superior" double room with 2 breakfasts. From Monday to Friday, the all-in price of dinner, bed and breakfast for two at 230€ (instead of their normal 283€) or on Saturdays and Bank Holidays at 310€ (instead of their normal 330€).
Also, you should enjoy 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 innovative 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. There is also a gymnasium.
The Three Musketeers offer is available to you Mondays to Thursdays. 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 192€. Dinner is a set option and we have heard many glowing reports from those of you who have taken up this Offer; we should point out however that if the selected choices for the dinner do not suit, you can ask for a change. 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 have access to reduced rates at the 4 star Hôtel Château Tilques between here and Saint-Omer. The hotel has a swimming pool. Here they are giving you a special price on their superior "Luxe" room at 159€ per double or twin room (or 135€ per single room) any night of the week. While you may see a "special price" on their own or some other websites, that price excludes breakfast at 16€ per person whereas our Offer includes it.
When booking any of these Offers, please be sure to mention Boursot to get your special rates.
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Wine Related Giftware
We have a great range of gifts for wine lovers or for your own self-indulgence, accessible on this link.
For example, our own design of Cellar Books is proving popular for those who wish to keep a record of their purchases or cellar contents. These are practical as well as aesthetically pleasing. Unlike many other types of cellar book on the market, ours are loose leaf so that you can simply take out or re-file pages of wines that have been finished. Our books are also hand bound with marbled paper and are available in three different colours. A Boursot's Cellar Book makes a fantastic gift for any wine lover.
Our gifts are also available from Boursot's Wine Collection in Ardres, and there are some fun items such as USB flash drives in the form of corks, framed and unframed copies of our exclusive Nick Newman wine cartoons, wine map tea towels as well as our own design of silver tastevin cufflinks. We also have decanters, Screwpull wine accessories and many more items. There is a present for anyone who enjoys wine. back to top
Your Own Wine Events in France
Regularly we are asked to help organise various social events with a wine theme - for groups such as Golf Clubs, Rotary Clubs, U3A, Wine Clubs, Car Clubs, birthday parties, office parties, pre-wedding parties etc.
When planning your event, typically we would discuss your desired objectives and work out everything 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 great 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 starts at 29€ all-inclusive and six wines work out at 8€ per person.
Depending on whether you should 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 currently behind the scenes in the wine world. These events are always fun and they are different: with only 23 miles across that English Channel, yet 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.
You can also enjoy tastings, presentations or general events in the vaulted cellars under our shop. If you should be interested in holding a tasting or other event for up to 35 people in our cellars, do say and we will be pleased to discuss your requirements and reserve the space for you.
Additionally we have been pleased to incorporate accompanied vineyard visits for some groups as part of their overall trip to France, as we are associated to a tours company. 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 £380 per person. So do ask us if a visit to a French vineyard area could be of interest for your group – from our side, (almost!) anything is possible.
And finally, as always I am of course happy to travel to you to present wine related events, or simply to be your after-dinner speaker with a difference! I have a lot of experience in this, and this is one reason, I imagine, why many clients ask me back to speak year after year.
Do please contact me on +33 321 36 81 46 or through my speaker website guy@boursot.com to explore all your options. back to top
You are invited to a Free Lunch!
On Saturday 31st October between 11.30 and 3.30,
we are inviting you to Marquise for a Free Lunch and Tasting
of a cross section of our wines between £3 and £25 |
As we shall be catering, we would be grateful if you could please let us know if you will be coming and how many there will be in your group. Lunch will comprise (French!) bread and local cheeses, patés, rillettes and salad. We will be delighted if you can join us.
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Other Forthcoming Boursot Events
Boursot's dinners are held for its British customers and so of course are conducted in English. They usually feature a wine-related guest speaker, whether a winemaker, a vineyard proprietor or even a wine writer! We organise everything, starting with pointing you towards our advantageous crossing rates with P&O, through to a bubbly reception, followed by a four course dinner designed to accompany at least five more wines. Usually we can also arrange accommodation for you, so all you need do after dinner is totter upstairs (perhaps via the bar?)!
All in all, the Boursot events are designed to be friendly and enjoyable while offering unbeatable value. We take a private room where we normally restrict numbers to around 40, so as to retain a convivial atmosphere: great food, great wine and great company. Dress is not formal and we suggest that you dress as if you were going out to a smart restaurant - which we hope you will be! All you need to do is to come along and enjoy!
Vegetarian and alternative food options can of course be provided, as long as we receive some 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 arranged to be enjoyable, interesting and of course, relaxed.
In planning our events for 2016, I am thinking that if there is a theme you would particularly enjoy, do please let me know and I shall see what we can do.
Boursot's Wine Collection is open on the Sunday mornings after a Saturday evening dinner.
Perhaps you have an anniversary to celebrate or you just want to get away for a quick change of scenery? You are of course most welcome to bring some friends to make up a small group (maximum of eight please).
Please contact us on ardres@boursot.co.uk or on +33 321 36 81 46 to book for any of our events below. These are likely to be popular events so we recommend booking early.
Saturday 14th November: "A château owner’s view of the Bordeaux market" with Pierre Brousse of Château Kirwan, 3ème cru Margaux at Hotel Château Tilques
Some of you may recall the highly enjoyable evening hosted three years ago by Pierre Brousse of the highly reputed Château Kirwan, 3ème cru Margaux. He provided some magnificent older vintages of Château Kirwan.
In our view, the Bordeaux market over-inflated with its 2010 harvest but since then, prices have been more restrained. Château Latour has opted not to take part in the annual "en primeur" merry-go-round and there are rumblings of other châteaux following suit. Are some of Bordeaux’s traditions finally being broken and what can the world’s customers expect for the future?
Wines being served and compared that evening include the "first" and "second" wines of Château Kirwan, cru classé Margaux in 2012 so as to look ; a dry white Bordeaux made by Schÿler and Barton, two historic winemaking names in Bordeaux and a white Graves. There will then be a comparison of "third wine" Saint-Emilion and Saint-Estèphe; and then a glass each of 2000 and 2010 Château Kirwan, cru classé Margaux to talk about the evolution of the chateau’s wine and the style of consultant winemaker Michel Rolland.
If you are confused by the terms "first" (the top), "second" and "third", the second wine is generally made from younger vines and it tends to be aged for less time than the "parent" wine, and the third is made from the youngest vines and with little oak ageing. The idea is that one still gets a style and flavour of the parent – and of course it enables the property to use its name across all of its wines down the quality scale.
Tickets are 89€ per person to include four courses, six wines and all entertainment. We have blocked off a number of "luxe" rooms at 159€, breakfasts included, at the hotel so please do say if you would like us to let you have a room from our allocation. The hotel has an indoor swimming pool that you might wish to take advantage of during your stay. This event is 70% sold so we suggest apply soon if you would like to book tickets.
Sunday 6th December: Ardres Christmas Market Lunch at the Restaurant François Premier, Ardres
So easily accessible from Britain, the town of Ardres always injects some fun and colour into an otherwise grey time of the year.
As last year, 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 the cellars under our Ardres shop from 10.30 on the morning of Sunday 6th, 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 three course lunch will be preceded by a bubbly reception and then accompanied by a further five Boursot wines, and everything costs just 62€ (around £43 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!
Always popular, we recommend you book early. This event is already 55% sold.
Saturday 23rd January: "Bubbles Make The World Go Around" by Guy Boursot at Hotel la Matelote, Boulogne sur Mer
January is when many of us need cheering up. So - what better than a champagne dinner during which you will drink six different styles of champagne: Grand Brut non-vintage from Perrier-Jouët, Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs from Saint-Réol, Blason Rosé from Perrier-Jouët, Vintage 2004 from Pol Roger, Demi-Sec from Tribaut and finally a "de luxe cuvée" the legendary Belle Époque with its anemone decorated bottles from Perrier-Jouët.
As you can see from this plan (subject to availability in January), three of the champagnes will be from Perrier-Jouët, the Grande Marque Champagne house in Epernay. Now, if you have negotiated your way around the Boursot website, you will know that my pioneering forebears introduced this champagne to the British market in 1828 and were responsible during the next 130 years for getting it into "all the right places" and following its success in the British market, "PJ" went on to become a global brand. On this evening I will talk about some of the family’s wine history as well as introduce the various champagnes and explain to you why each tastes so different.
Coupled with the magnificent cuisine of Tony Lestienne at the Michelin starred La Matelote and judging by our previous champagne dinners, we expect this to be a popular event and therefore we advise letting us know early of your intentions (with no commitment yet). The price per ticket will be 96€ (about £71 at today’s rate) to include 4 courses, 6 champagnes and all entertainment. This comfortable sea front hotel has a pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and hammam. Luxury doesn’t come at any smaller price, so come and spoil yourself!
We are blocking off a number of bedrooms at the hotel and are simply awaiting their confirmation of our preferential room rates. More to report soon.
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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.
In general Europe, and in particular France, has enjoyed an excellent quality and quantity harvest in 2015 – it’s quite unusual to have both and there has been much talk of this as being a major "vintage" year. But always remember that in the greatest years, there will be some duds produced and in some poor years, there will be some great wines produced.
But as always, some areas were more successful than others. In Alsace, Nicolas Faller wrote at the end of September (sic) "We have just finished 2015 harvest - the result is good despite a very challenging climat during the all year - spring and summer were very dry and the worst was expected early august - luckily we have had some rains end of august that has saved the harvest - yield are low, oechsle are very high but acidity still a bit low - all in all the vintage is going to be good but not to be kept very long due to lack of acidity".
Whilst you will hear of wide success in Champagne, Renaud Richard of our Champagne Richard-Dhondt was saying how he, in line with other producers who induce a malolactic fermentation to create a softer style of champagne, may be looking to add some acidity back into the wines. That was his only problem – quality was excellent, volume was great, there was just a shortage of acidity for the ageing of the wines. It is similar to, though not so extreme as, 2003.
Neighbouring Germany had similar conditions and its quality wines have enjoyed good sugar levels with resulting high potential alcohol and again wines for immediate consumption.
In some of our neighbouring villages such as Pommard in Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune, some producers were saved by the better weather this year and rather than risk waiting for any further ripeness, they picked just as soon as they were permitted. It was as well they did, because violent storms came to the area just days after the end of their harvest and if they had picked later, several vineyards would have been forced into foreclosure by the banks that had seen little or no income in three years, mostly due to hail damage. All in all, I have yet to meet a Cote de Beaune producer who is not entirely happy with his crop this year. Will prices fall? Unlikely!
Bordeaux is of course already talking up 2015 as being the greatest vintage since 2010. Whilst the Bordelais do have a reputation for talking up every year, it seems that they may be right about 2015. The juice is in the making and the results will be available for us journalists to taste next spring. We doubt that we will be buying en-primeur (futures), for those of you who may be asking!
If you should wish to come and question a Bordeaux producer, then you should think about coming to our November dinner when Pierre Brousse-Schÿler from Château Kirwan will be talking through some of the controversies as well as the several wines that he will be showing off. With a capacity of 60 for this dinner, we have a few places remaining.
In the Languedoc, François Delhon owner of our ever popular Domaine Bassac said on 29 September: "We are doing good. We will finish the harvest this week. The quality is good and the volume is huge!"
In my view, if you want wines with high quality at sensible prices, the Languedoc is currently the most exciting place to be looking.
At the other end of the drinks business, Diageo has finally announced it is hiving off the majority of its "wine interests" to Treasury Wine Estates as wine is no longer core to its business. The price tag was around £350m, contributing to Diageo’s cash injection of £1bn from its disposals this year. Major brands such as Blossom Hill (curiously bottled in Italy!) and Piat d’Or will join Treasury’s Lindemanns, Penfolds and Rosemount, although it is suspected that Blossom Hill may be sold on again quickly.
Last year we reported that France had overtaken Italy to become the world’s largest producer of wine. This was as a result of excessive rainfall in Italy during 2014. But now with 2015, expectations are that Italy will regain its top spot as it reverts to full volume, while France’s volumes are expected to decline by 1% to 46.5 million hectolitres.
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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 of the large producers have managed to dumb down their tours for visitors 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 Ltd 12 years ago to share my experiences with groups of interested customers. So if you should like to visit one of France's viticultural areas, have a look at www.overthetoptours.net - you will be taken 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 specifically 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 through 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 £370. We plan the trip with you and make the bookings for you, so all you 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 - May 2012
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
"On behalf of the Group I would like to thank you for arranging and participating in a very enjoyable and informative trip supplemented with such an array of wines and food to suit all palates. I have only had limited feed back so far, all very positive I am pleased to report." WSFWS - May 2015
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TripAdvisor, and E-mail
In case you thought that TripAdvisor was only for hotels and restaurants, think again! It has "Things to do" and "Attractions" sections so if you are particularly happy with what we do, please help us by telling others - by posting 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 52 people who have already put up favourable reviews, thank you very much. It all helps.
Hotmail.com and aol.com have particularly vicious spam filters which reject many mailshots, even though you might have requested 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 your e-mail provider, please don't forget to advise us of your new address so we can update your records. back to top
Holidays
In case you should be travelling to France and wish to have some good wines available for you to enjoy while you are away, you can have your requirements delivered to your French address by going to our French e-commerce website www.boursot. fr. You will see the English language option available and the process should be self-explanatory but do call or e-mail us if you need help. Delivery around France is free for orders of 120€ or more.
If you are returning from a holiday, Boursot's Wine Collection Ardres is situated just 7 minutes off Junction 2 of the north-south motorway, the A26. Then from Ardres to the port or the tunnel in Calais takes 15 minutes. Boursot's Wine Collection Marquise is sited just 2 minutes off the A16 between Boulogne and Calais and going on to the tunnel will then take you 15 minutes.
Boursot's Wine Collection does not close for holidays and is open as usual every day except Sundays. The Ardres shop is also open every Bank Holiday - French or British (with the exception of a few days around Christmas). back to top
Boursot's Wine List
Following some of your requests, we have brought back on to our list the La Bette, the full rich and very fruity wine from the Roussillon which has a distinctive art deco label, as below, that has attracted some of you. From the same Jeff Carrel "stable" comes a delightful red, also with an attractive label, called Les Cerises, which is from the Saint-Chinian region in the Languedoc. Jeff’s wines could be described loosely as "new wave" and whilst they tend to be really fruity and easy to appreciate in style, they also retain much of the character of their specific appellations: something which is often lost nowadays in the quest for "easy" wines.
We have also brought back the Grand Brut and the Belle Époque champagnes from Perrier-Jouët at really hot prices, so take advantage before we are forced to raise them!
Our list is of course always evolving although there are many core wines that you can find all year and every year.
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, and that you'd like us to put on one side for you, just say and we'll be happy to arrange it.
We also have a range of unusual sized bottles in wooden boxes, making smart gifts. For example, we have magnums, jeroboams (double magnums) and imperials (quadruple magnums) of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and Minervois, many of which are in wooden boxes at very sensible prices. As with our wine-related accessories, these make impressive and unusual gifts. back to top
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 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.
If by chance you are worried about the status of the port or the tunnel, call or e-mail us and (without guarantee!) we can pass on any current news. As I said earlier, it seems currently that Monday is the day of the week that is most likely to be clear for travel but having said that, one can never tell. For us, we are very much looking forward to business as normal.
Jean-Bertrand, Antoine, Bruno and I hope to see you in Ardres or Marquise again very soon, whether it's for our delicious and easy to enjoy Petit Pont Réserve wines at around £2.80 a bottle or whether it's for something more exclusive for your special dinner parties. We have them all.
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A très bientôt!
With all best wishes
Guy
Guy Boursot
Wine Consultants SARL |
