En primeur in Bordeaux

Anthony Hanson, well-known to Burgundians, tackles the Bordeaux en primeur issue.

Is this issue important to you?? Do people still futures the way we did in days past?? I find there is no point, as most wines are available later at the same price, after they have been tasted in bottle. The savings are gone. Thoughts??

No.

It makes almost no sense whatsoever. And in a bad economy, it carries risk.

Premier Cru, Carolina Wine Company, and Sam’s Wine. Enough said.

I did buy lafite Rothschild '18 on primeur for birth year and potential investment. I’m ok with it.

I used to attend Vinexpo regularly, and the en primeur tastings occasionally (much more to see French & Bdx based friends, and attend the dinner parties than anything else). I stopped many years ago, in part because I got busier at work, and because, well, I never buy en primeur anyway. I have no patience to age wines. I most always buy wines (those meant to be aged) of varying degrees of age - these days mostly around 15-20+ years and older. Of course, those casual whites and rosés, I buy young.

Totally agree. The wine makers and negociants and importers have stripped all the value out of buying most wine futures. They’ve raised the release price to whatever they find the market can bear and then usually beyond. A perfect example is Harlan. Used to be able to pick up a 6 pack if you were lucky enough to be on their list, hold it for a few years and sell 3 and keep 3 for free. Then they kept raising their price every year until now the cost on release is exactly what the market had valued the wines eliminating any value for the purchaser.

I find that I can usually cherry pick the best vintages already several years aged from reliable brokers at less than the release price on the new, unproven vintage. Just doesn’t make any sense.

Andrew,
Sometimes it is good to leave a little money on the table so everybody gets richer and wants to return to the table. That’s my theory anyway.

I’ve bought in diminishing quantities for the last few years, and those purchases were mainly to get the sizes I like. There is zero chance I would buy this year. Ok, maybe if prices were cut really wildly, but there is also no chance of that happening. I am out on futures. It hasn’t really made sense for a while, and this year is simply telling me loudly to snap out of it and listen to what I already knew - say no.

Poor taste… Heck they cancelled Oktoberfest and if that is cancelled what hope does Bordeaux have for En Premieur?

No reason for me to buy futures these days…I thought the liv-ex writeup on Neal Martin’s 2010 retrospective was eye-opening, when comparing futures price per case vs. current price. For 9 of his top 15 scoring wines, they are cheaper today than they were en premieur. Opportunity cost obviously is even greater.

Only sensible reason is to secure sizes outside of 750ml. 375ml and 1.5L or larger can really get a premium bump due to scarcity, that will probably be more so with current situation if you like half-bottles.

I am just curious. I feel like sometimes it’s hard to find a bottle of the vintage that I am interested in but I see some of those are easily available for futures. If I was interested to buy, do you have any recommendations on the websites? I see many on Wine.Com or Big Hammer wines but I am not fully sure. Any help is appreciated

Would avoid Big Hammer for EP. Cancelled my order after filling later customers, saying they would fill half of my order and then cancelling outright a while later. I had to replace at a higher price on my own. Per Yelp others had issues as well.

What I like about buying EP–from somebody reputable–is that I know the wine will be stored well.

Buying older vintages can be tricky because you are never sure of storage.

In the Bay Area I have done well with The Wine House of SF, JJ Buckley,and K andL…for older clarets.

In hindsight, I’m quite glad I disregarded my own advice and bought ~ 20 cases of 2019 futures during the early summer of 2020!

Have they arrived??
When will you drink your first bottle??