Newsletters

September 2018

Bonjour!

The main headings in this newsletter are shown below.

• General
• Wine prices, UK duty and why you should buy your wines at Boursot's Wine Collection
• Boursot's Marquise Shop
• Introduce a Friend and you will receive a Free Bottle of Champagne!
• Boursot's Special Membership Benefits
• Weddings
• Your Own Wine Events in France
• Forthcoming Boursot Events
• Views on the World of Wine
• Gite to rent in Burgundy
• Delivering wine in France and across mainland Europe
• New: Delivering wine to the UK
• Holidays
• New Wines, Boursot's Wine List and Gift Vouchers
• For Our Investors
• In Conclusion

Bonjour

General

It has been quite a few months since I last put my proverbial pen to paper. But you have not been forgotten!

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Wine prices, UK duty and why you should buy your wines at Boursot's Wine Collection

The euro stands currently at around 1.12 to the pound.

Wine prices in France have stayed remarkably stable over the last couple of years and currently I expect this stability to be maintained and we hope to be passing on some price reductions as a relatively plentiful harvest is coming in right now (read more below under Views on the World of Wine).

On the other hand, wine prices in the UK are being affected badly by the worsening exchange rate as well as by additional storage and distribution costs, plus the margins on these extra costs from both importers and retailers. This means that the consumer gets to feel an even greater burden - the UK's additional cost is not just about the exchange rate. On top of that comes the penal rate of UK duty at £2.16 per bottle of still wine or £2.77 per bottle of sparkling wine – and that's before the addition of 20% VAT.

By buying your wines in France, the savings are still enormous and you can bring back as much as you like (there are no limits on quantity). You get a much higher proportion of "wine" in your purchase than is possible in the UK thanks to the hugely different rates of tax on wine. Bear in mind that if you buy a bottle of wine in the UK, approximately 65% of the price you pay is in tax. In France there is only a negligible rate of duty of around 3p per bottle, thanks to the country being a major supplier of wine.

In addition to the prices savings, a prime reason why people come to us is to buy "interesting" wines that are often not available in the UK or if they are, they are sold at silly prices because they are not "mainstream" wines.

So many of you say the same thing - voiced by one happy customer "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".

If you should be concerned about falling exchange rates and have a large party or wedding to cater for, we are of course happy to accept your forward payments and we will secure these against the stocks that you require. Payment can be made safely by card on www.boursot.co.uk/secure.html which simply sends me an encrypted e-mail. Alternatively you can pay by bank transfer and we will send you our bank details on request.

Getting across the channel in just 35 minutes is just so easy, and you can take advantage of our FREE and £25 travel offers with Eurotunnel. Our Offer is for same day or next day returns. Simply click on the Eurotunnel logo on our home page to send us your travel preferences and we will make the booking for you, subject to availability of course. You then receive an e-mail confirmation directly from Eurotunnel. Our Offer is also open if you would like to come in a van.

In addition to providing such great value, we provide an enjoyable day out (ok - I know many of you come straight over, load up and go straight back but…!) with good restaurants, shops specialising in all sorts of French delicacies, so there is no shortage of things to do whilst you're here. "The best day-trip you could wish for!": the words from one of our TripAdvisor reviewers. Let us help you make the most of your trip.

We have advantageous arrangements for you with some local hotels and B&Bs if you'd like to stay overnight, and some of these may be found on this link. With all our wine, travel, restaurant and accommodation benefits available to you, this is an excellent time to hop across. And apart from the wine, there are many groceries, and of course diesel, that are still so much less expensive in France than in the UK, despite whatever interested parties might tell you about exchange rates!

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, you get a reliably superior quality and value. With a range starting at around £3.50 per bottle, Boursot's has developed a reputation for taking some of the confusion and risk out of seeking and buying decent French wines, and with its British owner and experienced English speaking staff, you will always receive good advice. And much of the time you can taste the wines as well.

Remember: according to HM Revenue & Customs 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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It's £2.16 on a bottle of still wine and it's £2.77 on a bottle of sparkling wine – and that's before 20% VAT! As stated earlier, retailers calculate their margin on that additional cost, so the difference then becomes even greater. UK wine drinkers are already the second most heavily taxed in Europe, only beaten by Ireland. It is unfortunate that wine drinkers are perceived as an easy target in order to reap more tax revenue for successive British governments.

With the average selling price of a bottle of wine in the UK at £5.56, this means that around 65% of the cost of that bottle is now consumed in tax. In Britain, just 60p is the cost of the wine itself and as you might imagine few producers are happy to produce wine at such a low price point.

In France there is only a negligible rate of duty, 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: you are buying wine not tax. It really isn't difficult to work it out.

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, you get a reliably superior quality and value. With a range starting at just over £3 per bottle, Boursot's has developed a reputation for taking some of the confusion and risk out of seeking and buying decent French wines, and with its British owner and experienced English speaking staff, you will always receive good advice. And much of the time you can taste the wines as well.

In addition to providing such great value, we provide an enjoyable day out (ok - I know many of you come straight over, load up and go straight back but…!) with good restaurants, shops specialising in all sorts of French delicacies, so there is no shortage of things to do whilst you're here. "The best day-trip you could wish for!": the words from one of our TripAdvisor reviews.

On our list you get a good selection of French wines in Ardres and Marquise with colossal savings over UK prices. You can rest assured that all the wines on our list, starting at just 3,90€ (around £3.40 at today's rate) 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.

So many of you say the same thing - voiced by one happy customer "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".

Remember: according to HM Customs 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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Boursot's Marquise Shop

With plenty of free parking Boursot's shop and warehouse is just 10 minutes from the tunnel on the free A16 motorway on the way to Boulogne, Hardelot, Le Touquet, Montreuil, Normandy or Paris. It has the same stocks as Ardres.

We have one of the best wood-fired bakeries of the area right next door to our warehouse so you could even grab a coffee and a baguette or croissant there whilst your car is being loaded with wine.

Marquise is an attractive town, close to the picturesque seaside villages of Wissant and Wimereux with their fine sandy beaches. France's biggest fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer is only 10 minutes away, with all that has to offer and moving southward Hardelot and Le Touquet with their golf courses is another half hour further down the A16 motorway. You will find a list of nearby places to eat or stay on this link.

Opening hours for Marquise are marginally different, being Tuesday to Saturday 10.30 - 5.30 and it is NOT open on French bank holidays.

On a totally different note here, we have spare capacity in the warehouse and offices that we own in Marquise. As you may know, it is very well located thanks to it being positioned just metres off one of the main motorways heading south to Paris and Normandy, and north to Belgium, Holland and Germany – and it is just 15 minutes from the tunnel.

If you are looking for a base just within mainland Europe in case Brexit should come about, then do please contact me and we can explore possibilities.

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Introduce a Friend and you will receive a Free Bottle of Champagne!

From today for an unlimited period, if you recommend us to a friend who becomes a new customer who spends more than 150€ in either of our shops and goes on our e-mail list, we will give you a bottle of our lovely Richard-Dhondt, Cuvée de Réserve champagne next time you are down in Ardres. So make sure you tell them to mention your name, so we can save your bottle!

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Boursot's Special Membership Benefits

Travel: One of your benefits as a Boursot customer is reduced cross-channel return fares with Eurotunnel:

Spend more than 400€ and travel for £25 (34€)!

Spend more than 800€ and travel for FREE!

To take advantage, simply click on the Eurotunnel logo on our home page of www.boursot.co.uk and this will pull up a Secured Order Form. Fill in details of your order and preferred times of travel and press "Send". On receipt, we will make your booking and you will then receive your booking confirmation directly from Eurotunnel. It's that simple!

Additionally we have extended our advantageous rate if you are coming to collect your wines in a van – travel for just 45€ return on a purchase of 450€ and FREE for a wine purchase of 900€.

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Hotel and Restaurant 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.

We also list there the Bank Holidays so that you do not find, on getting to France, 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 so many good eating establishments at all different price levels, so do ask us if you would like a recommendation.

• Château de Cocove, just 10 minutes south of Ardres: there has been major recent investment in refurbishing the hotel as well as raising the standards in the restaurant. During 2018 Boursot customers can receive a 15% discount off room rates, subject to availability. As with all our offers you need to mention Boursot's Wine Collection. www.chateaudecocove.com.
• The Michelin starred Hôtel La Matelote opposite Nausicaa on the sea front in Boulogne sur Mer has food of really high quality. The hotel also has a swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna and hammam. The Matelote 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 240€ (instead of their normal 283€) or on Saturdays and Bank Holidays at 310€ (instead of their normal 330€). www.la-matelote.com/en/
• Also, as a Boursot's Wine Collection customer, you have access to reduced rates at the 4 star Hôtel Château Tilques between Ardres and Saint-Omer. The hotel has an indoor swimming pool. Here you will benefit from 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. www.tilques.najeti.fr

When booking any of these Offers, remember to mention Boursot's Wine Collection in order to get your advantageous rates.

We also have Gift Vouchers that can be made to any value of your choice and that we can send with your note to your recipient.

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Weddings

Clearly an important part of our business is in supplying quality wines for serving at weddings. The chances are that you already know about our guaranteed great quality and value but recommend us and the wedding couple can receive from us a free Eurotunnel ticket and you will receive a free bottle of champagne as a thank-you.

Many of you have been kind enough to tell your friends about us, resulting in more people being converted to the cause of what I would call "genuine" wine: very much better quality wine at lower prices than you might have otherwise bought in Britain. We have received so many compliments for our wines transforming a good wedding into a great wedding - and making it even more memorable for that.

Between Friday 21st and Sunday 23rd September, I will be at The Wedding Show at Olympia, sharing a stand with our friends at Cad & The Dandy, the excellent tailors in Savile Row, the City and New York. If you should know someone getting married who would like to discuss wine planning for their wedding, ask them to come and see me and I shall be delighted to help.

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Your Own Wine Events in France

Regularly you ask us 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 or simply a group of friends.

We have advantageous arrangements with restaurants around the region that provide great quality food at a sensible price, and where you can enjoy our wines at our shop prices with no cost of "corkage", assuming of course that one of us is attending. Typically a four course lunch or dinner including water, coffee and service works out at 29€ all-inclusive and six wines work out at 9€ per person. Clearly these costs can vary according to the level of meal and / or wines you would like

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. It is a great day out.

You can also enjoy tastings, presentations or general events in the vaulted cellars under our Ardres shop. As you can see from the photo on our home page, our cellars can give you a memorable experience. If you should be interested in holding an event for up to 35 people in our cellars, do call or e-mail to discuss your preferences.

And finally, 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 rather a lot of experience in this and this is one reason, I imagine, why many clients are good enough to ask me back to speak year after year. A recent testimonial:

"Thank you for your talk and for entertaining our guests so well. When it comes to talking about wine, you're a class act." RF, Mayor of W….. – July 2017

You can see some more background on my speaker website guy@boursot.com. Do please call or e-mail me to discuss your preferences.

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Forthcoming Boursot Events

We host a number of high quality wine dinners at several great local restaurants. Needless to say, these are conducted in English, often by a wine-related guest speaker, whether a winemaker, a vineyard proprietor or even a wine writer! We normally opt for a four-course meal starting with a bubbly reception, followed by at least five more wines. We block-book bedrooms at the venue so you don't need to worry about searching out accommodation in the area. It's all designed to be simple, effective and enjoyable.

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.

After a Saturday evening dinner, the nearest of the Boursot's Wine Collection shops is open on the Sunday morning.

Perhaps you have an anniversary to celebrate or you just want to get away for a change of pace and scenery? You are of course most welcome to bring some friends to make up a small group (normally to a 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.

Saturday 20 October: 190 Years of Champagne Perrier-Jouët and the Boursot family:
Gourmet Champagne Dinner at Hôtel La Matelote, Boulogne sur Mer

To quote an article in the Wine & Spirits Trade Review of December 1935 "It may be said without the scintilla of exaggeration that the inspiriting record of Perrier-Jouët in England is intimately and inextricably mixed and blended with the history of the Boursot family."

OK, 190 years may not seem like a major landmark but what better an excuse do we need to invite "PJ" to come and present a selection of their wines over a great dinner? We will have at least four different champagnes – white, rosé, blanc de blancs and the prestige cuvée Belle Epoque to accompany our four course dinner. The quality of cuisine is consistently of the highest quality at the Michelin starred La Matelote in Boulogne sur Mer.

We have invited one of the directors from Epernay to be with us that evening, to explain the wines and to discuss the ongoing trends in Champagne. The person we have invited is the head winemaker but we await with baited breath as to whether he will be able to attend.

We have blocked off superior rooms at the hotel for you so please let us know if you would like one from our allocation. Your special rate will be 150€ per double room with breakfasts included, representing a significant reduction over their normal rates.

The all-in price of this spectacular evening is just 95€ (about £84) so you can see immediately that we are heavily subsidising this dinner. Please e-mail on ardres@boursot.co.uk shortly so as to secure your places.

Saturday 17th November: Dinner at Château de Cocove: Speaker to be confirmed

We have invited two of our Rhône producers to present this evening but as usual, responses are slow to come back; it's a long way to come and they have to give up their weekend. As soon as we have further news, we will post it on to our Events page.

With so much high quality Rhône wine on the market and at such reasonable prices this is an area that, drop for drop, offers exceptional value for money and especially when compared with other classic regions of France.

Tickets are available now at 85€ per person to include four courses, six wines and all entertainment.

Bedrooms have been block-booked so please do say if you'd like a room from our allocation.

Sunday 2nd December: Ardres Christmas Market - Tasting and Lunch

This event always has a great atmosphere; perhaps because of all that "vin chaud" consumed around the stalls or perhaps because of our free wine tasting in our vaulted cellars! The owners of the François Premier restaurant have now retired and so this is no longer available to us as a venue. However, Ardres has five other restaurants and it is probable that we will use La Bonne Auberge although details have not been finalised as yet. Confirmation will go up on the Events page as soon as available.

At the lunch I plan to introduce the wines being served and then conclude by talking a little about the year's goings-on behind the scenes of the wine world.

The price of our three course lunch with six wines will be just 62€ (about £55) and may be booked now through ardres@boursot.co.uk.

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, the ripening season across Europe went well this year with very little or no frost damage and only a couple of localised hail storms. Harvesting started early in most regions of France and this year the quality looks to be good and most importantly France expects 25% more yield nationwide by contrast with 2017.

Around France we have had of course very hot conditions in the summer months but there was little or no hydric stress this year thanks to the plentiful rain that fell in the Spring. A little rain during August also helped to swell the grapes before harvest. Elsewhere, parts of Italy and Spain have seen some scorching of vines, leading to a reduced yield or at least an imbalance of sugar and acidity that can make the difference between an ordinary wine and a great wine for maturing.

What seems unusual to me this year is to have such a wide disparity of starting dates for the harvest. 2017 was the year when the snap frost of late April devastated crops across all vineyards from Britain to Bulgaria, so nobody wanted to see any repeat of such low yields in 2018 and it seems to me that many growers have taken the risk of waiting for optimum maturity.

The region of Champagne has now all but finished harvesting grapes of a high quality but I find with the Champenois that they seldom admit to a 100% success (remember that, like the port producers, they do not officially declare a "vintage" until some time after the event and the deciding factors are not exclusively about the quality of the year!). Several Houses say they have lost yield owing to hail damage.

The UK's love affair with champagne seems to have stalled. According to Nielsen 2017 saw four million less bottles (now down to 25 million bottles) being shipped to the UK and this followed a disappointing 2016 in which shipments decreased by three million bottles. As the champagne sales graph is a long-respected economic bellwether, this must be worrying.

In my local area of Beaune, the harvest is nearly all completed and some very decent quality juice is bubbling away in the tanks and yet in the more southerly and hotter Rhône valley where one might expect an earlier harvest, picking has only just started. Our growers Pierre Amadieu in Gigondas in the Rhône tell me they are "happy" this year (again, not a common word among growers!) with quantities back to normal and they say that the grapes' overall maturity, while variable between plots, is good.

Nathalie Godet, maker of our Sauvignon de Touraine, in Oisly in the Loire valley tells me they have only just started their harvest and she feels that the grapes are near-perfect.

On the wine retailing side, 2018 has not been easy as several stocks ran out owing to that tiny harvest of 2017. However pragmatism ruled and price increases have been almost non-existent as suppliers did not want to lose their long-standing trade customers. Many 2018 vintage wines will be brought to market earlier than normal so as to cover 2017's shortfall, so you can expect to see "lesser" whites and rosés appearing this December.

It is curious to recall that when I first started in the trade in Saint-James's back in the 1970s, there were often years when harvests "failed" and were written off. Since that time, winemaking has become more scientific, measured and controlled and so nowadays it is rare to find a complete failure. Most wineries have adopted computer control of fermentation temperatures, steel tanks and juice samples can now be analysed down to the finest detail.

Making decent wine is a costly business. Producers need ongoing investment and we have seen emerging economies such as China and India opening their arms to foreign investors and advisors and now these countries make some world class quality wines. But inevitably this has led to higher values and not surprisingly some of the "old school" bemoan the increased values placed on land and indeed on the wines.

With the ever-rising value of "fine wine", it is hardly surprising that wine fraud has become more prevalent. Over recent months we have seen scandals in Bordeaux and the Rhône, where wines that were stated to be of one quality were in fact discovered to be of a different quality. With the potential financial gains, this is something we can expect to hear about on a more regular basis.

Often I have talked here about the changing nature of wine and indeed how so much of it is now made with less potential ageing in mind. There is one problem area that I discussed here in June 2012 and that is "Premox" or to give it its correct title: Premature Oxidation. Since the 1995 harvest, some top quality white Burgundies have shown signs of ageing too fast, taking on a musty aroma and colour which is not exactly what you want from a wine that you might have kept carefully for the last 15 years for some really special occasion.

Even after all these years, nobody is yet certain of how this has come about despite several theories. Many were quick to point the finger of blame at the cork but as I argued previously, this was an unlikely cause as red wines have not been affected in the same way.

Nevertheless, the screwcap lobby managed to propagate the idea that it was cork that was the problem. The closures market is a multi-billion euro business so it's no small wonder that we are sometimes fed information that is not necessarily entirely accurate.

It seems more likely that the now-normalised later harvesting has led to less stable wines, and then that the grape skins might have been pressed too lightly without extracting enough of the beneficial anti-oxidants and preserving tannins.

In their perpetual search for as pure a wine as possible, winemakers in Burgundy have reduced their levels of SO² which is needed to prevent oxygen from attacking the wine and turning it rapidly to vinegar. The production of wine is complex but remember that it is not by definition "natural": drinkable wine has to be suspended artificially between infant grape juice and its natural oxidised end-state of vinegar!

Talking of cork, there is an increasing number of producers who, having experimented with screwcaps, seem to be turning back to the more ecologically friendly cork. The Portuguese cork industry has, somewhat late in the day, sharpened up its act and the chance of cork taint has now dropped substantially and indeed some cork producers now offer guarantees that their corks will be taint-free.

The debates go on.

It was sad to see yet another major Australian producer, Brown Bros, announcing that it was pulling out of the UK describing it as being both "the most unforgiving market in the world' and "unsustainable for our company". Retailers' use of heavy discounting as their prime marketing tool, together with strong competition, the falling value of the pound and other Brexit-related anxieties have led to this cessation of a 25 year long association with the UK.

I have (not?!) been surprised to hear about how many breweries are now rushing into cannabis, now that some of the drugs laws are being relaxed especially in Canada. Diageo, Constellation and Heineken are each at different stages of talks to develop cannabis flavoured drinks – mostly beer but I have heard of one producer talking of infusing his California Sauvignon Blanc! Is this the next fad?

Almost each month some newly publicised report talks about either the health benefits or problems related to a glass of wine! You know what I'm talking about: it's good for your heart, it's bad for your heart; it's good for this, it's bad for that. So I was especially amused to see a recent report that said that alcohol can help you speak a foreign language more fluently! I can understand the logic of becoming more relaxed after a glass but it must be a pretty fine line between speaking Dutch and speaking double Dutch!

But there again… we often see a flurry of media activity just before a Budget presumably to brace the country for further duty or tax increases. With no recent duty increases in the UK, I feel another hike is in the planning. Wine bought in the UK is about to become much more expensive – you know the solution: buy from us in France. Take back as much as you like and save yourself a fortune.

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Gite to rent in Burgundy

As you may know we own a charming gite, L'Ancien Domaine, just five minutes from Beaune in Burgundy, that is available for you to rent. Sleeping six in three double en-suite bedrooms, with a kitchen, dining room, sitting room and a TV room, this makes an ideal base for your trips around the Burgundian vineyards. In addition, trips to interesting wine producers can be organised for you and recommendations given for local restaurants. Visit www.lanciendomaine.fr for more details or call me.

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Delivering wine in France and across mainland Europe

An integral part of our service has been delivering bottles or cases of wine across mainland France on a 48 hour basis. So if you should like to send a gift to a friend or deliver some wines to an address where you will be staying, just go to our e-commerce site on www.boursot.fr/en and select what you would like, pay for it by card and your order will be delivered within a couple of days. Delivery is free on orders of 12 bottles or more, mixed as you like and we can of course also insert any gift message for you. We also deliver across the whole of Europe including the UK within a few days and so again, go to www.boursot.fr/en

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New: Delivering wine to the UK

We deliver wines legally, cost-effectively and quickly into the UK. We suggest this service to those of you who are perhaps too busy to hop across the Channel to collect but who would still like to take advantage of our exclusive quality wines at great prices. Of course there always remains the option to hop across to stock up and thereby take fuller advantage of the very low French prices by filling your boot in either Ardres or Marquise.

To explain a little: when we despatch orders, we attach a customs declaration to one of the cases in your consignment because you have paid French prices which do not include UK duty and VAT. Technically, because you are not travelling with your alcohol purchases, you should pay the UK duty and VAT on your wine's arrival (and even if you did, our wines would still offer fantastic value against their UK equivalents!). However, it appears that HMRC has more important things to worry about at the moment than chasing after a few pounds of duty. Of all the orders we have delivered into the UK over the last six months, we have not yet heard of one single British customer be requested for UK duty or VAT – which of course makes our wines of even greater value!

Our export prices are marginally different (+1,30€ a bottle) from our shop collected prices because of the amount of additional packaging material that we have to use and then there is a small delivery charge, as below. We offer two qualities of delivery service to your UK address: express normally takes a maximum of three working days and regular takes up to a week.

To place your order

Simply go to www.boursot.fr/en and order your requirements on-line. Your order will be acknowledged automatically and delivery will normally be made two working days after the consignment leaves our cellars. You will also receive from us a link to access tracking of your order. If you should like any advice, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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Holidays

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 should take you 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.

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Boursot's Wine List and Gift Vouchers

Owing to your requests, I have just brought back on to our list the distinctive La Bette and Pinot Noir wines from Jeff Carrel in the Languedoc. Another reintroduction that you have requested is "that stripy labelled red wine" aka Domaine de Sirus in the Minervois. I hope you will enjoy all these once again.

Also new to our list are two super reds made predominantly from Old Grenache in the mountainous region of Maury above Carcassonne. These are full and rich and make impressive drinking during the forthcoming season. "Des Racines et des Rèves" and "Terra NexXus" are the names to look out for.

Our list is updated monthly and can always be accessed through the View/Print Wine List button on the home page of our site. 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 web 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 Gift Vouchers that can be made to any value of your choice and that we can send to your recipient. We are also happy to attach a note for you.

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For our investors

Our investment offer to our private circle of customers has an annual 8% interest payable in your choice of wine so if you have taken part, don't forget to come and collect your "interest". If you have not made it over recently, don't worry you will not lose any rights and you can simply catch up when you do come to Ardres.

If you should be tempted to take part and would like documentation, please e-mail me and I shall be pleased to send it to you.

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In Conclusion

We are told regularly that our offering is so much more exciting and better priced than the equivalent retail operation in Britain. It is unlikely that you will read a review on us in the British media, even though we have been told often enough that we are newsworthy! We have found that your word of mouth continues to be our most reliable source of new customers. So, if you are happy with what we do, please help us by telling your wine loving friends (and gain yourself a bottle of champagne!), or you could refer your friends to our "Receive Monthly Newsletter" button on the home page of www.boursot.co.uk. And if you're happy, mention us on TripAdvisor – it all helps.

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.

Jean-Bertrand, Bruno, Steven 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 £3.80 a bottle or whether it's for something more exclusive for your special dinner parties.

A très bientôt

With all best wishes
Guy

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