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<td align="right" valign="bottom"><span class="Redbold">Travel notes and news from the vineyards of France<br>
ViNews is a press service from wine and travel website, winedrive.com</span></td>
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<p>March 24, 2006</p>
<p class="boldtext style1">Why not invite the Chancellor to share your wine?</p>
<p>If you are a wine lover paying a typical average £5 a bottle, you may as well invite Gordon Brown to help you drink it. Because with the latest increase in duty plus Vat, he is taking almost half your fiver.</p>
<p>But from next month, discerning wine lovers will be able to buy from home free of UK taxes and cutting out the retailer's margin. Wine and travel web site, winedrive.com will enable people to buy direct from the vineyard at French tax-paid prices. Compared to mail order in the UK, the total saving on just one case of Fronsac is £33 rising to as much as £227 for a St Emilion Grand Cru. Buy five or ten cases, and the savings could be in the thousands.</p>
<p>More than 100 top French vineyards have agreed to accept telephone orders, shipping wine to a collection point near Calais. In a special deal with Channel crossing specialists, ferrycheap.com, winedrive buyers take a day-return trip from Dover from just £15 and collect their wines.</p>
<p>Said wine consultant Guy Boursot who manages the Calais collection point: "This takes the 'booze cruise' to a new level aimed at the more discerning wine lover. Instead of buying whatever a discount warehouse may have in stock, they take a virtual tour of top vineyards on winedrive.com and make an informed choice from award winning wines".</p>
<p>The web site lists more than 100 vineyards with comprehensive details about the growers, plus lists of over a thousand wines with production and tasting notes. Added Guy Boursot: "I already have regular customers who get me to order their wine, then drive to France to collect it. Winedrive takes this a stage further. Short of driving all the way to the vineyards, it is the best way to buy without relying on a self appointed 'expert' or trusting the quality of whatever is in the warehouse or on a mail order list."</p>
<p>The savings even allow for shipping to Calais and a small handling charge. "Based on UK prices, it means much more of your money goes on the wine, so some superb quality vintages come within reach of buyers watching their budgets," he added.</p>
<p>To take advantage of the low tax rates in France and get low cost Channel crossings, go to www.winedrive.com.</p>
<p>ends</p>
<p>384 words</p>
<p><span class="style1">Guy Boursot</span> is a past chairman of the Champagne Academy, the organisation that represents the generic interests of the Grande Marque Champagne Houses in the UK, is a livery member of both the Worshipful Company of Distillers and the Worshipful Company of Vintners. An Englishman with French ancestry, his family has been making wine in the village of Chambolle-Musigny in the Côte de Nuits of Burgundy since the 16th century.</p>
<p>Further Information From:<br>
<br>
email: media@winedrive.com</p>
<p>Guy Boursot<br>
Tel: +33 6 76 10 32 41<br>
<br>
Dave Spokes, WineDrive UK <br>
Tel: 01202 603204<br>
Mobile: 07900 056591</p>
<p>Maurice Carroll, Winedrive France<br>
Tel: +33 (0) 5 49 29 47 05</p>
<p>Winedrive is the only web site to identify quality vineyards in France, give driving directions to find them and help people buy French wine direct from the producer.</p>
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