Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas everyone.

Ah yes, its that time of year again. It’s summer (in theory anyway) so it’s time to prepare for Christmas.

In the events industry the first ads for party venues and the like appear in the July issues of the trade magazines, so the early birds would have written their Xmas copy in late May/early June. Personalised wine is more of finishing touch, for after the venue decision has been made, so we hit the 2nd wave in the August editions, which land on desks this week.

It’s good to think of all those event organisers sitting on the beach deciding on the table decorations and whether to give everyone a small bottle of personalised champagne or have the waiters pour from magnums. I hope they don’t drip their suncream over our ad.

I suppose it’s been easier to think of Christmas this year in the rainy greyness than it was in last year’s heatwave, but I still get the feeling that some how I’m writing off half the year!

Funny time of year.

A little something I’ve noticed over the years is that in the second half of July we get requests for large quotes with short lead times.

It may be for claret, vin de pays or champagne, but every year we will get asked about the possibility for a large quantity to be delivered between now and early September. Which is great, I love to do quotes, if I don’t quote how can I win the work?

But……

There is a fly in the ointment. The French. Its not that they are being difficult or unpredictable. Its just that France closes in August. Business stops and everyone disappears for a month. The wine industry takes a break because they know that in September the harvest will be hard work with long hours. Fair enough, its just that not everyone in the UK understands this. Customers decide they want something and are puzzled that the French aren’t around to sell it!

Naturally we keep sensible stocks of all our wines to cover normal levels of activity, but the unusual one off opportunities can be difficult. 6,000 bottles of a wine not in our standard range, Alsace pinot blanc, in 5 weeks, normally no problem. But really at this time of year that’s only 2 weeks so it becomes a rather worrying race against time.

If only I could predict what this year’s odd requests would be, but then we would miss out on all the thrills and excitement!

visit our website www.euromarquewines.co.uk

Our champagne wins an award!

Our Champagne Damien was commended at the International Wine Challenge 2007. This is the most prestigious wine competition in the world, so an award is quite something.

The champagne comes from a family owned producer in Bisseuil, to the east of Epernay. They are a Producteur Recoltant Manipulant, literally producer grower manipulator. This means that they do everything from producing the grapes in their own vineyards to producing, blending and bottling the finished wine.

This champagne contains a high proportion of red grapes to give it some body and make it able to cope with food. It contains a fair amount of premier cru grapes, which gives it an edge over other champagnes.

Damien is used by a number of major companies as their house champagne for corporate gifts and events. It is available in bottles and magnums.