Bordeaux 2018: Buying En Primeur
As usual, I have included some words in this final part of my introduction to this vintage on the wisdom of buying en primeur. When I began adding this section, a few years ago, my intention was to protect readers from financial losses incurred by dealing with the wrong merchants, who might never deliver the wine paid for as a result of incompetent or fraudulent practices. These days, however, we have to question the wisdom of buying at this stage at all. En primeur purchases no longer offer the financial benefits to buyers that they once did.
There are, at the time of publishing this report, many uncertainties. The yields in 2018 are variable, but the overall volume coming out of the region is good. These days any sense there is a short supply of stock is partly down to the willingness of the top châteaux to hold back a significant percentage of the crop to pour at the estate, or to sell for a higher price later on. Such a practice is facilitated by a high release price, generating a sufficient profit from the release of a smaller volume of wine. This is just one of many factors, alongside a desire to maintain a certain price level, and an awareness of the high quality of the vintage, that will result in high (or higher) release prices this year.
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