Home > Wine Features > En Primeur - what are the real advantages today?

En Primeur - what are the real advantages today?

The Problem with Primeur:

Part 1: En Primeur
An introduction
Part 2: The Consumer
Is en primeur a good deal?
Part 3: Buying Great Wines
Is en primeur the only way?
Part 4: Losing Out
En primeur - a safe way to buy?
Part 5: Advantages?
So should we buy en primeur?

It seems only reasonable that, having spent the last four weeks trawling through the less appealing aspects of purchasing en primeur, this week I should provide some balance to this series by looking at the positive side.

Securing the wine you want

Provided you use a reputable 'bricks and mortar' merchant, purchasing en primeur can be a safe and reliable way to secure a quantity of a desirable wine. There are caveats, of course. As discussed in previous weeks, even a seemingly reputable merchant can fold, and of course not all wine merchants are as reliable as they seem. The collapse of Nick Davies' business Hungerford Wine is an affair which provokes painful memories for many en primeur purchasers in the UK, many of whom were left holding receipts for hundreds or thousands of pounds, with absolutely nothing to show for their money. And even with reputable merchants you may simply not receive an allocation this time around, even if you are a regular customer. Nevertheless, the en primeur campaign can be a good time to secure stocks of wines which are likely never to reach the market again. Many wines of the Rhône Valley, for instance, and also Burgundy, are rarely seen following initial release. Contrast these with Bordeaux and Port, which are traded for decades afterwards. Perhaps en primeur purchasers should concentrate on the former two regions, and pick up the latter two when the prices are right?

Securing the wine at a good price...securing any wine at all!

In previous weeks I have explained that many wines sold en primeur subsequently come onto the market at considerably less than the initial opening price, so how is it possible to pick up wines at a favourable price? The key is to use only this method of purchasing when the hype demands it. For Bordeaux, this has happened probably only three times in the last two decades; 1982, 1990 and 2000. In these vintages conditions were very favourable and large quantities of excellent wine were made across the board. With the right comments from the right critics, however, demand soon reaches fever-pitch, and wines are snapped up as soon as they are released. Prices escalate rapidly, and you can be certain they will remain high. At the time of writing a number of merchants are beginning to offload unwanted stocks of the weak 1997 vintage. You can be certain no such fate will befall the much-lauded 2000s. The same can be said of Port. The prices of the 2000s are very likely to remain high here also, helped no doubt by that magic number on the label.

En primeur bottles Of course in situations such as that which existed during the Bordeaux 2000 vintage en primeur campaign, many would-be purchasers are disappointed as small allocations are spread very thinly amongst a larger than usual number of punters. One merchant (from whom I purchase regularly) sold me the equivalent of one case after I had requested at least six. Those who at least enter the melee are not as disappointed as those who make no attempt to purchase at all, however, who obtain no wine and can then only watch the prices climb and climb. Here en primeur works, at least if you believe that something is better than nothing at all.

Ensuring provenance

For me this has to be one of the greatest advantages of purchasing en primeur. On arrival in the UK all my purchases, except those intended for early drinking of course, move straight into temperature and humidity controlled storage facilities which I rent. The wines are stored securely, in optimal conditions, and as an added advantage are insured to full replacement value. Consequently I can be confident that these wines will not spoil due to poor storage during the years between their purchase and being opened. And with an account at a bonded warehouse I can store the wines without payment of duty or VAT, which is not due until the wines are removed from this facility. Delaying payment of taxes in this way is advantageous, as the amount payable decreases in real terms as inflation and wages increase over the years.

Convenience

As a final comment I do find en primeur to be a convenient way of building up stocks of wine. The time and effort taken up by making what is almost a 'bulk purchase' of wines from a great vintage is considerably less than that involved in trying to secure stocks of the same wines ten years later. Admittedly purchasing in this way may not always be the most financially advantageous, but to those who truly believe that 'time is money', the convenience of purchasing in this manner may be preferable to a small saving in cost.

Summing up

The decision to purchase en primeur is an individual one, but I would suggest to anyone who purchases wine in this manner to consider all the variables which I have discussed during the course of this series. Laying my cards on the table, I currently make en primeur purchases of wine, and will continue to do so. I purchase many wines of the Rhône Valley in this manner, for reasons explained above. Bordeaux, however, is a different matter. The 2000 vintage I purchased en primeur, as it was clear from the starting gun that prices were only going to go up. I have made no en primeur purchases from other recent vintages, specifically 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001, preferring instead to pick up what wines I want when they come onto the market, at a better price and in a quantity which suits me. Supply in these vintages has never been a problem. For Port, I prefer to purchase wine nearing their drinking window at very reasonable prices, rather than paying double or more for wines from 1997 or 2000, which require decades in the cellar before they are even approachable. It's a simple scheme, but it suits me well. (21/2/03)