First of all, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers and suppliers for their fantastic support in 2010. We are well aware that you all have a choice of where you buy and sell your fine wine and we really appreciate the fact that, for so many people around the world, Farr Vintners is their number one wine source. 2010 has been an amazingly successful year for us (our best ever!) with sales more than doubling from 2009's figure of £83 million to £169 million. This massive total was helped, of course, by record demand during the extraordinary 2009 en primeur campaign (which brought in sales of £62.8 million), our unique "Great British Cellar" sale from a leading UK collector, Asian demand for Lafite and its siblings and our recent hijacking of an enormous parcel of young Bordeaux that was destined for the USA but which was shipped instead to us in the UK and which we are now offering at knock-down prices.
Further to Stephen Browett's blog "Kiwi Chardonnay takes on the World" of August this year, we are happy to post these notes from Paul Brajkovic of Kumeu River on a similar theme.
Oliver East and I hopped on the Eurostar to Brussels at the end of last week for another of our annual First Growth dinners with Belgian friends, a group of real super-gastronomes! This time the venue was the great Restaurant Bruneau (www.bruneau.be) and the theme was Chateau Margaux.
Many congratulations to the 2010 Farr Vintners Christmas Quiz Champion, Richard Ross, who got an impressive score of 48/50. Richard beat last year's winner, Kurt Baker, into second place and he has kindly donated his prize to charity. Many thanks to all of you who took part and the best of luck next time!
