🍷 En primeur

En primeur is the sale of wine futures: a buyer reserves a wine before it has even been bottled. En primeur means selling wine futures: a buyer reserves a wine before it has even been bottled. The châteaux sell their latest vintage while it is still ageing in their cellars, which lets them recoup their production costs. The buyers receive the wines 18 to 24 months later.

The Bordeaux interprofession (CIVB) dates the practice to the mid-18th century, when châteaux began to sell wine before it had finished ageing in barrel, and describes it as a financing tool rather than a marketing tool. Every year, during the Semaine des Primeurs, the trade tastes young samples, 6 to 8 months old, of the latest vintage. Buyers are asked to buy pallets of wine 6 to 18 months before bottling, and the price is set from the anticipated quality of the wine.

The négociants of the Place de Bordeaux structure the system. According to the CIVB, Bordeaux has 300 wine merchants, who handle around two-thirds of all Bordeaux wine sales. Around one hundred brokers (courtiers) link the estates and the négociants: they organise sales, help determine release prices and ensure that contracts are honoured, and they facilitate 75 % of the transactions between owners and négociants.