This month I had the pleasure of taking four customers, and Ali and Kate to France with me on a buying trip and it was a fabulous experience, watching them experience some wonderful French hospitality and of course some remarkably good wines.

We flew to Lyon and then headed towards Burgundy to the Chateau de la Saule in Montagny where they were celebrating the 200th vintage. We expected a bit of a do but were still more than impressed by the informal dinner in the 18th century chateau.

After this we headed to Abbaye in Tournus where we met a small selection of bespoke Burgundy growers.  Having good relationships with the growers is probably more important in Burgundy than anywhere else in the world as the vineyards in this area are small and fragmented and buying directly from the growers allows us to buy some great wines and achieve some fabulous prices.

After this we headed into Beaujolais , heading towards the Rhone, visiting producers all the way. From Avignon we crossed into the Languedoc region where we visited Domaine de La Croix Belle in Cotes du Thongue, then into Corbieres where we found a new exciting range of wines for Barrica – they’ll be on the shelves very soon!

We ended our trip with a relaxing lunch in the sunshine in the square at Limoux and flew out of Carcassonne later in the day. It was a 6 night, 7 day visit which proved to be extremely productive and enormous fun for everyone involved.  Can’t wait to do it again!