En Primeur

En Primeur, frequently known as Wine Futures, is the practice of buying wine before the wine has been bottled, i.e. it is still fermenting in barrels.

En Primeur is most popular with leading French Chateaus' in Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhone Valley and Port.  These Chateaus are often producers of top quality fine wines and offer their wines En Primeur so as to secure early orders and payment in advance of the wines release.  Typically the prices paid are significantly below the achieved price and value on release and hence it is not uncommon to see substantial returns from En Primeur wines.  For example, the 1982 vintage of Chateau Latour was sold En Primeur at £250 per case, and was valued in 2008 at around £12,000 per case.

The time difference between the date of purchase and the date of the wines release is typically up to 18 months.

Note that whilst purchasing fine wines En Primeur frequently has achieved significant gains, it is also possible to see losses, for example, when the vintage is deemed to be lower quality than expected.  As with all investments the market value can go down as well as up and past performance is not a guarantee of future trends.

Capital Vintners do provide En Primeur wines, from carefully selected Chateaus where consistent wine quality and hence price performance have been demonstrated.

If you are interested in finding out more about purchasing En Primeur fine wines please contact one of our brokers at Capital Vintners.  See contact us for details.

Alternatively see our guide to buying and selling fine Bordeaux wines.