The Planet of the Grapes Burgundy En Primeur Offer 2018
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The Planet of the Grapes Burgundy En Primeur Offer 2018 This year, I brought my usual January visit to Burgundy forward and set off in the second week of September feeling very lucky that the weather forecast was blue sky and sunshine. We managed to catch most of the Domaines pre-harvest, although some who mainly make whites were already all hands to the pumps! Much as I love a visit to Burgundy any time of the year, there is something to be said for trying wines in the cellar wearing shorts and a t- shirt - I’ve had friends join me in January and catch pneumonia. That general feeling of sunshine and warmth was actually reflected in the wine we tasted, as there’s lots of luscious ripe fruit in the 2018’s - especially in the reds. One word of warning in advance of next year’s 2019 En Primeur - quality will be at least as good as 2018 but quantity will be down, quite considerably in many cases, so my advice is to double up on these delicious 2018’s! The whites are generally fuller and rounder than the 2016s and 2017s; potentially not as long lived but giving superb drinking pleasure over the next 3 to 5 years; longer for the top Crus. Moingeon have smashed it out of the park with a superb range this year, as have Domaines Meunier and Belleville. We have a couple of new Meursault 1er Cru Charmes, from Moingeon and Bellang that are amazing bargains when you’ve seen the prices other people are charging for this top site! For value you should consider the Viré-Clessé and Pouilly-Fuissé. The reds really are delicious; the sweet fruit suits the wines from down in the Chalonnaise - Rully & Mercurey both shine, but across the board these 2018 reds give immediate pleasure. That said, don’t be fooled into thinking there are no serious wines to be had. The Vosnes from Cacheux, Nuits from Remoriquet and our new Volnays from Bouley are all big boys that will benefit from time in bottle before being unleashed. With the more elegant charm of Marechal, Jeanniard and Dubuet-Boillot, we have a balanced list of, as ever, very well priced wines. This is the last En Primeur offer we will send out before we leave the European Union. I’m not even sure if my driving licence will get me a car at Dijon station next year! What I do know is that I will now be visiting late summer, and January - just to make sure the wines we offer are up to scratch. The things I do for you… Sante! Matt Harris – January 2020 How buying en primeur works Buying wine en primeur, or what the Americans call ‘futures’ involves buying wine before it is shipped, and sometimes even before it is even bottled. The benefit to the domaine is that they get paid much earlier than they otherwise would, so many will offer a better price to get the money in. The benefits to the buyer are that they get a better price, and they can order wines that are in short supply and may never appear in the shops. Whenever you see a bottle of Burgundy on a shop shelf, it’s safe to assume that it didn’t sell out en primeur. When you buy en primeur you buy the wine in-bond; that is to say without duty or VAT. When the wine arrives in the importer’s bonded warehouse you have two options; you can transfer the wine under bond to your own bonded warehouse account, or you can pay the duty and VAT, and have the wine delivered to you. As many don’t have a bonded warehouse account, we offer customers two ways of paying; you can pay the in-bond price, or you can pay the presumed duty and VAT now. If you pay the in-bond price we will notify you when the wines arrive, and you can arrange a transfer to your bond. If you pay the duty and VAT, when the wines arrive we will deliver the wine to you. This may incur a delivery charge. One word of warning; the duty and VAT are calculated at the point the wine leaves bond, which could be as much as a year from now. We have calculated the all-inclusive prices at the current duty rate of £2.23 per bottle, and the VAT at 20%, but in these uncertain times it cannot be guaranteed that these rates won’t change in an emergency budget. If there was a rise in either duty, or in VAT, we would have no option but to pass the cost on to buyers. And a word on buying wine as an investment: Many people buy Bordeaux en primeur as an investment, but save for a few top wines, we do not recommend buying Burgundy for that purpose. Prices may well rise, especially in a great vintage, but quantities are so small it’s very difficult for a market to form; Bordeaux classed growths are produced in the tens of thousands of cases, but most Burgundies are made in much smaller quantities than that. Most Burgundy en primeur is bought for drinking; usually by enthusiasts who want to drink the wines they love, and who wouldn’t sell them for any price. We sell wines for drinking! How to order Until we have final confirmation of our allocations we can’t confirm any orders. Domaines want balanced orders and require us to take quantities of the lesser wines alongside the sought-after sexy stuff. Of course, we will try to get you the wines that you want, but we must allocate the wines in most demand to customers who buy across the range, and in doing so, help us to secure the allocations from the domaines. To order wines, send me an email to [email protected] and tell me what you would like to order. Alternatively, complete the attached order form and return it to me. Orders will be confirmed by the end of February, when payment will be required to secure the wines. The wines will be shipped in the coming months – between March and December. Some of the top wines are in very short supply and, whilst in-bond orders must be for full cases, we will sometimes split a case of 12 into two six-packs for customers who buy inc. VAT; either on request, or to fairly distribute particularly sought-after wines. The Domaines Domaine Ludovic Greffet (Pouilly-Fuissé) Page 4 Domaine Gondard-Perrin (Viré-Clessé) Page 4 Domaine Gaëlle et Jérôme Meunier (Mercurey) Page 4 Domaine Belleville (Rully) Page 5 Les Parcellaires de Saulx (Meursault) Page 6 Domaine Emma et Christian Sorine (Santenay) Page 6 Domaine Christian Bergeret et Fille (Nolay) Page 7 Domaine Michel Moingeon (Saint-Aubin) Page 7 Domaine Christian Bellang et Fils (Meursault) Page 8 Domaine Sylvain Dussort (Meursault) Page 8 Maxime Dubuet-Boillot (Volnay) Page 9 Domaine R & P Bouley (Volnay) Page 9 Domaine Catherine et Claude Marechal (Bligny-Lès-Beaune) Page 10 Domaine Billard Père et Fils (La Rochepot) Page 11 Domaine Remoriquet (Nuits-Saint-Georges) Page 11 Domaine Réné Cacheux (Vosne-Romanée) Page 12 Domaine Remi Jeanniard (Morey-Saint-Denis) Page 12 The Wines Domaine Ludovic Greffet In the year we have been shipping Ludovic Greffet’s Pouilly-Fuissé, it has become a firm favourite in our bars. Monsieur Greffet doesn’t waste much money on packaging; his labels are dull and his cases are barely adequate, but the wine is brilliant! Where else are you going to find Pouilly-Fuissé at this quality and price? White Pouilly-Fuissé 12 bottles £180 in-bond £252 inc. VAT Domaine Gondard-Perrin There have been Gondards in the Mâconnaise village of Viré for as long as anyone can remember, but until 2007 they sold their grapes to the local cooperative. For the last few years we have been buying Cuvée Tradition for the bars, but we were so impressed by the domaine’s 2018 single vineyard wines, we decided that we should offer them en primeur. La Belvédère is rich and beautifully well-balanced, whilst the Viré Clessé Aux Quarts is as good as any Pouilly-Fuissé at half as much again! White Viré Clessé Cuvée Tradition 12 bottles £135 in-bond £198 inc. VAT Viré Clessé La Belvédère 12 bottles £145 in-bond £210 inc. VAT Viré Clessé Aux Quarts 12 bottles £175 in-bond £246 inc. VAT Domaine Gaëlle et Jérôme Meunier Gaëlle and Jérôme Meunier are based in the village of Barizey, close to Mercurey, but they also own vineyards on the Côte d’Or including some excellent parcels in Puligny- Montrachet. The wines are rich and easy-going in style with good balance and depth of fruit. They are also astonishingly good value! The Mercurey Village Blanc and the Mercurey 1er Cru Blanc are constantly popular, whist the Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champs Gain; from a vineyard quite high on the Côte, is a textbook example. As for the two reds, the Mercurey Village Rouge is fruit-forward enough to be consumed in the next year or so, while the Mercurey 1er Cru Rouge would benefit from some ageing. White Bourgogne Chardonnay 12 bottles £115 in-bond £174 inc. VAT Mercurey Village Blanc 12 bottles £165 in-bond £234 inc. VAT Mercurey 1er Cru Blanc 12 bottles £210 in-bond £288 inc. VAT Puligny-Montrachet 12 bottles £285 in-bond £378 inc. VAT Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champs Gain 12 bottles £360 in-bond £468 inc.