Welcome to our April edition which this month focuses on En Primeur 2010 and numerous articles covering recent tastings and dinners we have held.

With regards to En Primeur we are delighted to announce that ‘wishlists’ are now available on our website which allows users to create and update a list of wines that you are interested in. Once these wines are released you will be contacted by your account manager before we release them for general sale. The ‘pre-order system’ that proved so successful last year will be available to use from early next week and you will be notified once it is fully functional.

So if you're looking to buy wines that are likely to sell out fast, then you know what to do. ‘Wishlists’ and ‘pre-order systems’ are in place for your benefit, as well as ours. This is not only a great way to keep track of the wines that interest you but it also tells your account manager what you're looking for, keeping you one step ahead of the game.

We hope that you enjoy the new format of our newsletter. This layout allows us to provide you with more content rich information and will enable you to swiftly view the articles that interest you the most. As always we value your feedback.

2010 Bordeaux has produced some of the most memorable wines ever. It is a completely different beast to the unique and explosive 2009 and should be viewed and considered as such. It is much more classical, but with a capital C……The properties that took advantage of the finest Cabernet Sauvignon the Medoc may have ever seen certainly excelled on the left bank.

How to spend a Monday evening – watching soaps and eating the remains of Sunday lunch or dining in a 2* Michelin restaurant, tasting legendary wines from one of the most prestigious château in the world…..a somewhat easy conundrum and I plumped for the latter and prepared myself for what promised to be an extraordinary evening.

Considering that this was the first Italian tasting we’ve ever held, the interest was unreal – within 20minutes of the invite going out, we had reached full capacity and had an enormous waiting list. The point of the tasting was to introduce a wider variety of Italian drinking wines& new producers to customers.  We showed around 60 wines, and it was to no surprise a fantastic event, the feedback on the night confirmed its success & everyone left with big smiles on their faces, a little flustered, with the message loud and clear –buy Italian wine, they offer great value for money and are good for all the ‘foodie’s’ of the world.

Last month we co -hosted a ’10 Year On’ Bordeaux Tasting with Michael Schuster, and here’s what a few of the wine critics had to say:

Reds: I found this a thoroughly satisfying tasting for the enthusiastic claret drinker. Not noticeably ‘right’ or ‘left’ bank in terms of success, and where the wines were well made these are crisply elegant, medium to long term clarets with plenty of ripe fruit and interest in the best of them. Very few duffers here, partly because this is of course already a fairly drastic selection! The notes and scores, of course, tell the story.

What people said about the Tuscan Tour:
Keith – “Tonight’s dinner is worth the whole tour”
Vaughn - “These wines are astonishing”
Mr. & Mrs. Leveton - “Thank you for taking us here”
We all met on Tuesday evening at the reception of the hotel in the centre of Florence ready to walk through the gorgeous monuments of Florence heading for dinner to one of the finest restaurants in Italy – Enoteca Pinchiorri.