PMH Wines latest UK merchant to default on en primeur Bordeaux

Wine merchant PMH Wines Ltd has become the latest UK merchant to fail to pay Bordeaux négociants for en primeur wines.

In August 2005 the company, which is based in Godalming, UK, confirmed to an American client an order for 11 cases of Bordeaux 2004 totalling £3270, sourced from Louis Vialard in Bordeaux.

These wines should have been shipped in late 2006 or early 2007 – but

decanter.com has established that PMH Wines Ltd ran into financial problems in 2006.

In early 2006 Louis Vialard, which had been pressing PMH Wines to pay the final instalment for the 2004s, cancelled the order due to non-payment of debts.

Paul Havers, the sole director of the company, did not inform the American client that the order was cancelled.

PMH, which has been in liquidation since August 2006, has 11 county court judgments against it totalling £11,761.

In May 2006 Havers signed an application to have PMH Wines Ltd struck off, and resigned as director, but he has now formed a new company, The Wine Barrel Ltd, trading from the same address, with he and his wife Monika as directors.

Havers has sworn under oath that there were only two creditors of PMH Wines – Hallgarten Wines and himself. But more creditors have come forward. A complaint has been filed with the Insolvency Service that Havers had failed to make a complete and true statement. No action has been taken.

He has claimed there is no connection between PMH Wines and The Wine Barrel.

Written by Jim Budd