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The “Printemps de Vin” of Blaye took place once again in the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Citadelle of Blaye; with lots of sun and 20 degrees on Sunday a great event in Blaye!
At Villa St Simon this is always a fun weekend for our guests and many spend both Saturday and Sunday tasting the wines of the 80 châteaux who chose to take part. While these are less than 20% of the 600 producers in Blaye, Côtes de Bordeaux appellation, there were as usual some gems to be found.
Here in the Cave de la Citadelle, the restaurant wine bar, and home to the “Inner Circle Members Wine Tasting Club”, we were kept busy, helping participants rehydrate with a selection of our Mascaret, organic, micro brewery beers, and charcuterie and cheese platters to cater for the appetites stimulated by all the wine tasting.
On the winery front the “Etalon Rouge” vineyard has been pruned and the tying up has been done. This week we will plough the soil to eliminate insects, fungi and weeds that could damage the vines.
We hope that all of you that took advantage of the offer to our loyal clients, are now enjoying the Etalon Rouge 2011 that you purchased. 2015 will be a great year and everyone is already very pleased with the development of the wines that are still in the barrels.
After lots of thought, as there are only 4000 bottles of Etalon Rouge available after the owners have had their share, we have decided to have an annual allocation program. Existing clients of Villa St Simon, La Galerie, Villa St Simon apartments and La Cave de la Citadelle, can apply to take up, up to 36 bottles annually. This will be done on a 1st come 1st serve basis, to be fair to everybody and wines will be reserved each year, for you. The price for pre-orders is 20% less than the prevailing retail price of currently 26,00€, so 20,80€ per bottle.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Our best wishes and we hope to see some of you this year here in Blaye.
Leslie P. Kellen
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