The primeurs sales is a process by which wineries offer their new vintage for sale two years ahead of its availability on the market. It is often considered as an opportunity for wine amateurs to buy the most sought after wines for a lower price than what will be observed once the bottles become available through the standard selling channels in a few year’s time.
The 2005’s sold very well in primeur and reached prices never seen before. But today, these wines are mostly stored in cellars and tend to lose value every day, due to the general economic crisis. Some investors (or should we say speculators?) even started selling those wines with loss in order to cash what still can be. The 2006’s didn’t sell very well in primeur and the 2007’s mostly still sits and waits in the winemerchant’s warehouses, simply because winemerchants have to keep on buying their quota of primeurs every year in order to keep their privilege for the years to come. Unfortunately, the 2007’s were priced very high an very few were actually purchased by end consumers.
According to most wine specialists, the Bordeaux 2008 vintage is better than expected, and also better than the overpriced 2007’s.
Two questions now: will the bordeaux winemakers participate to the primeur campaign? And if they do so, what will be their primeur pricing?
To buy or not to buy?
Hubert de Boüard of St-Émilion made the first move and took everyone by surprise by announcing an opening price for the Château Angélus 2008 close to the reasonably priced 2004, in other words 40% below the 2007! One could think that this is an oppurtunity not to be missed out. But it might not be that simple as we can for instance now expect some 2005’s to be sold at very good prices soon, just like the 2006’s are now on the market cheaper on average than first priced during the primeurs campaign two years ago. And we all know that almost no 2007’s were sold so far.
You might be amongst those who bought some 2006’s in primeur as some traditionaly do so to celebrate the birth of a child born that year… hoping to make a good deal and to later share a birth’ year vintage with your kid once he reaches the drinking age. If so, you probably noticed some of theses same bottles hitting the supermarkets shelves 20% cheaper two years later. If 2008’s saw your family extend again, you might be thinking along the same principle … but this time, you might be better off keeping your cash for the good bargains in the coming two years… so will you gamble?
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