A Guide to En Primeur

En primeur - sometimes called wine futures - is the practice of buying wine while it is still ageing in barrel at the château, typically 18 to 24 months before it is bottled and delivered. You pay now for wine you will receive later. The system is most closely associated with Bordeaux, but Burgundy, the Rhône, Port, and a handful of other regions also release wines en primeur.

The buyer commits to a price at the time of offer. If the wine appreciates between purchase and delivery, you have made a good trade. If it falls, you still take delivery at the price you paid. There is no secondary market for en primeur contracts themselves - once you buy, you are committed.

The Bordeaux en primeur campaign follows a predictable annual cycle. The harvest happens in September and October. The following spring - typically April to June - the châteaux release barrel samples for critics and merchants to taste. Scores and reviews follow quickly, and the châteaux then set their release prices one by one over a period of weeks.

UK merchants receive allocations from négociants (Bordeaux wholesalers) and offer them to their customers. Allocations of the most sought-after wines are limited, so established customers and those who buy consistently tend to get first access. For the top First Growths and Right Bank estates, demand regularly exceeds supply and offers sell out within hours.

The wine is then bottled and shipped to the UK roughly 18 to 24 months later. It arrives in a bonded warehouse under the merchant’s account, and ownership is transferred to the buyer. From that point it sits in bond until the buyer chooses to withdraw it or sell it on.

Price. In strong vintages, en primeur offers the lowest price at which a wine will ever be available. Once physical stock arrives and demand from collectors, restaurants, and overseas buyers kicks in, prices typically rise. The 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016, and 2019 Bordeaux vintages all saw significant appreciation between en primeur release and physical delivery. Buying early locks in the opening price.

Access. Production of the top wines is small and demand is global. Buying en primeur is often the only way to guarantee an allocation of wines like Pétrus, Le Pin, Lafleur, or the top St-Emilion and Pauillac estates. If you wait for physical stock, it may not exist - or it may only be available at a steep secondary market premium.

Cellar building. En primeur lets you build a cellar methodically, buying the same wines across consecutive vintages at consistent prices. For collectors who drink aged Bordeaux regularly, this is a practical way to keep the pipeline full.

Price doesn’t always rise. Weaker vintages (2011, 2013, 2017) saw en primeur prices that were higher than the eventual market price of the bottled wine. Buyers who purchased at release would have been better off waiting. The châteaux set prices based on their own assessment of quality and demand, and they do not always get it right.

You are buying blind. Barrel samples are not the finished wine. They give critics and merchants a reasonable indication of quality, but the wine will evolve during its remaining time in barrel and through the bottling process. Occasionally a wine that tasted promising from barrel disappoints in bottle, or vice versa.

Counterparty risk. You are paying a merchant up to two years before receiving the wine. If the merchant fails in the interim, your money may be at risk. This is not theoretical - it has happened. Buy from established, well-capitalised merchants with a long track record of en primeur fulfilment.

Capital lock-up. Money spent on en primeur is tied up until the wine is delivered and can be drunk or resold. For wines that take a decade or more to mature, the total holding period from en primeur purchase to drinking can be 15 years or longer.

Burgundy en primeur operates differently. The volumes are far smaller, the pricing is less transparent, and allocations are controlled by the domaines and their importers rather than through a négociant system. Demand for top Burgundy has risen sharply, and en primeur is often the only realistic route to wines from producers like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Leroy, or Rousseau.

The Rhône also offers en primeur for top Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Hermitage producers. Port vintages - declared roughly three times per decade - are sold en primeur from the lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia.

cellrd tracks en primeur offers alongside back-vintage in-bond stock, so you can compare current campaign prices with what the same wine costs for delivered vintages. This makes it straightforward to judge whether an en primeur offer represents good value or whether you would be better off buying an older, ready-to-drink vintage at a similar price.

Try a search