Picked for Hotel du Vin
November 25th 2010, by Gavin
We are delighted to announce that the wines of Château Bauduc have been selected as the “Premium” house wines for the Hotel du Vin group.
Our wines have now been delivered to all fourteen locations in England and Scotland. Other than the flattering endorsement of our red, white and rosé, all of which have the Bauduc/Hotel du Vin label, this provides a great opportunity for us to host wine tastings and wine dinners for many of our customers around the UK. We’d be delighted to read any ideas or suggestions you may have for what might – or might not – work at the various locations.
The fourteen Hotel du Vins are at: Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Harrogate, Henley-on-Thames, York, Newcastle, Poole, Tunbridge Wells and Winchester.
Record Price for Rare Bordeaux… which I once put on expenses
November 25th 2010, by Gavin
No sooner had we gone to print with La Gazette, with news that the record auction price for a bottle of wine had been smashed, then another record comes along.
Three bottles of Lafite 1869 went for £147,000 each to a buyer at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong last month, and now Christie’s have sold a six-litre bottle of Cheval Blanc 1947 for £192,000 in Geneva.
For me, there are four remarkable things about these new records:
1. Prior to last month, the record for the highest price paid at auction for a single bottle of wine hadn’t changed for 25 years. In 1985, a bottle of 1787 Lafite was sold at Christie’s in 1985. A jump now to nearly £150,000 each, for not just one but three bottles, is quite a leap.
2. The pre-sale estimate for the Lafite 1869 was just £3200 – £5200 per bottle. It seems that even the experts have as much of an insight into the Chinese market as the rest of us – not unlike the £1.2 million top estimate for the Qing dynasty vase that sold this month at an auctioneers in Ruislip, of all places, for £43 million (£53 million was the total bill).
3. Hong Kong has established itself as the Fine Wine capital of the world in under four years. Tax on wine was as high as 80% at the beginning of 2007, then slashed by half that year, and then abolished completely in February 2008. The number of wine merchants, I’m told, has increased from 400 to 4000, and the number of tourists – splashing out on fine wine and fine dining – has increased dramatically.
4. As for nearly £200,000 for an Imperial of Cheval Blanc 1947 – well, I once claimed for a bottle of this wine on expenses.
La Gazette: Winter 2010 Issue (No 24)
November 25th 2010, by Gavin
La Gazette was posted to UK customers on 24th November. Let us know if you’d like to be included on our mailing list – email gavin at bauduc.com. Here you can view a draft copy online – simply click on the image below to open a new window and flick through La Gazette using some cunning software called flipdocs. Sadly, it doesn’t work on an iPad. Your comments are very welcome:
November Newsletter
November 23rd 2010, by Gavin
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