{"id":1557330,"date":"2025-11-19T17:19:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T17:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.67pallmall.com\/?p=1557330"},"modified":"2025-11-21T11:21:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T11:21:30","slug":"under-the-surface-where-now-for-bordeaux-en-primeur-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.67pallmall.com\/under-the-surface-where-now-for-bordeaux-en-primeur-2\/","title":{"rendered":"UNDER THE SURFACE |\u00a0Where now for Bordeaux En Primeur?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bordeaux’s last few En Primeur campaigns have revealed a certain apathy among wine lovers, and not even reduced prices in the last two years have repaired the damage done by overpriced vintages of the past. Guy Woodward takes the temperature of the UK fine wine trade to see if a solution can be found<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When London Members were surveyed for the Club\u2019s first-ever Fine Wine Trends Report earlier this year, one topic in particular attracted a certain strength of feeling. And it wasn\u2019t positive\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Bordeaux En Primeur prices have to come down \u2013 greedy producers have ramped them up too far and killed demand,\u2019 said one. \u2018It makes no sense to pay for storage for ten years when prices for older vintages are lower,\u2019 pointed out another. \u2018The EP system is f***ed and it may never recover,\u2019 read a more succinct appraisal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Private collectors have lost
on their purchases over the
last few years, and they are
unlikely to be persuaded back
to buying by marketing
emails alone\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Such opinion very much tallied with the general UK market sentiment over recent years. Robert Mathias MW, buying director at merchant Lay & Wheeler, says: \u2018We’ve had very similar feedback from customers who feel that producers haven’t been making a big enough effort, or there’s too much stock in the market.\u2019 As Peter Mitchell MW, his counterpart at fellow merchant Jeroboams, pointed out: \u2018Despite the last two vintages having seen a big drop in release price, all the talk is that En Primeur prices are still too high.\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

More tangible evidence of the malaise came from St James\u2019s stalwart Justerini & Brooks, which was still sending out emails hawking the 2024 first growths two months after their initial release: \u2018The 2024 En Primeur campaign didn\u2019t ignite much enthusiasm,\u2019 it wrote in its understated way, before pointing to a general ‘apathy among collectors’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All this despite the fact that the quality of the \u201924 vintage was better than expected, in a style suiting modern tastes \u2013 fresh, aromatic wines to be drunk young \u2013 and offered via a carefully choreographed campaign in which prices were 30% lower than the 2023s, which had themselves been discounted by a similar amount from 2022. The trouble is, says Mitchell, those \u201922 prices were \u2018bonkers\u2019 compared to the price of mature vintages. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Industry consultancy Wine Lister reports all five of the most recent en primeur vintages having fallen in value from their release price. Global exchange platform Liv-ex puts the number at seven vintages (see chart below) and says it\u2019s part of an even wider pattern. \u2018Private collectors have lost on their purchases over the last few years, and they are unlikely to be persuaded back to buying by marketing emails alone,\u2019 it cautions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Global exchange platform Liv-ex’s figures charting the return on investment when buying its core wines En Primeur <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s not just in the UK that the market is down. Jean-Christophe Est\u00e8ve of Bordeaux merchant Sovinat told local newspaper SudOuest that 2024 was \u2018one of my worst en primeur campaigns in 40 years\u2019. Fran\u00e7ois Dugoua of top-end n\u00e9gociant Ulysse Cazabonne argued that producers were \u2018paying for the excesses of past campaigns\u2019, meaning the \u2018connections with our long-standing clients in Europe and France have been broken\u2019. Sud-Ouest\u2019s conclusion? \u2018The entire [en primeur] system needs to be redesigned\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how would that look? Finding producers willing to advocate tangible change is a challenge, but Jos\u00e9phine Duffau-Lagarrosse of St-Emilion\u2019s Ch\u00e2teau Beaus\u00e9jour put her head above the parapet: \u2018It\u2019s clear that some evolution is needed,\u2019 she told 67 Pall Mall. \u2018The market and consumer landscape today are very different from even a decade ago, and the En Primeur system can\u2019t remain static if it\u2019s to stay relevant and competitive. The model has to adapt, both to the current economic climate and to changing consumption habits \u2013 especially among a younger generation that feels less connected to this kind of system.\u2019 Whether there is sufficient will among her counterparts to make this happen is another matter. \u2018Opinions are divided,\u2019 says Duffau-Lagarrosse. \u2018Some believe change is essential if the system is to survive and thrive, while others remain cautious, perhaps wary of a transformation that could permanently alter the traditional balance.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing that most observers agree on is that the amount of wines offered en primeur is likely to shrink. \u2018In the past, merchants would offer almost every wine that came out,\u2019 says Matthias. \u2018These days, putting up 100 wines makes no sense. We’ve got to focus on the 20 or 30 that deliver volume and value and actually represent an opportunity to buy.\u2019 And that’s largely first growths and bluechips, he says. \u2018As lovely as they are \u2013 and they really do offer exceptional quality for the price \u2013 I can’t see a particularly good reason to be buying wines like Gloria or Cantemerle or S\u00e9n\u00e9jac at \u00a320-30 when they’re still going to be \u00a320-30 in five or ten years.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The last 15 years of En Primeur trading by UK merchant Farr Vintners, whose chairman Stephen Browett says such sales account for just 2% of its turnover today and are ‘no longer an important part of our business’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that it\u2019s just this level of producer that has come to rely on the early sales offered by en primeur. While Ch\u00e2teau Latour withdrew from the system in 2012, now offering its wines for release only when it deems them ready, it could afford to do so. Others need the cash. As Jean-Christophe Mau of Bordeaux n\u00e9gociant Yvon Mau told Jancis Robinson MW on her website, ch\u00e2teaux who pull out of the system risk running into cash-flow problems while they sit on stock. \u2018N\u00e9gociants can refuse to buy, but ch\u00e2teaux can\u2019t turn off the tap,\u2019 he said.  There\u2019s also a certain pride at play, with lower-profiles names wanting to be part of a process that shines a spotlight on the region for two or three months every year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, any change to the system is unlikely to happen overnight. As Mathias observes, \u2018Bordeaux is a big old ship to steer, what with the capillary system of La Place and the negociants. While we have our point of view in the UK, that’s not to say what works in the UK works in the US, or Cambodia, or Hong Kong. Yes, the UK market is important, but it’s not the only one.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, Wine Lister reports several suggestions from UK merchants to enhance perceived value and generate more excitement around future campaigns: \u2018cleaning\u2019 the market prior to release; offering second wines only once in bottle; encouraging producers to work with only a select number of UK merchants; and reaching out to a younger audience through subsidised tasting events or via incentives for buying multiple cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jos\u00e9phine Duffau-Lagarrosse of St-Emilion\u2019s Ch\u00e2teau Beaus\u00e9jour: ‘the model has to adapt’. Right: Jean-Charles Cazes of Ch\u00e2teau Lynch-Bages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both Mathias and Mitchell sense a desire among producers to rethink how they deal with the market. With potential casualties in the supply chain, this could come by reducing the number of negociants with whom they work. But it could also see ch\u00e2teaux engage more closely with the end consumer. \u2018There\u2019s been a feeling among quite a few collectors that, because of the negoce system, producers have not been that engaged, and have taken them for granted at a time when there\u2019s tons of really good wine out there from other sources,\u2019 says Mitchell. \u2018As a result, the next generation don’t feel as connected to Bordeaux. It\u2019s what their parents drank, and younger consumers don’t want to wait on something for 10 years, with the associated storage and inflation costs.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeroboams held a tasting for its customers last months entitled \u2018For the Love of Bordeaux\u2019, which several producers travelled to attend. As a result, says Mitchell, customers went away feeling better about Bordeaux \u2013 especially as the quality of the wines is not in question. \u2018We had critics like Matthew Jukes and Oz Clarke saying how fabulous it was to see someone actually championing Bordeaux. Everyone’s so down on it right now, but it still makes ridiculously good wine. And a lot of the wines that aren’t first growths remain tremendous value.\u2019 Berry Bros & Rudd held an En Primeur tasting of the 2024 wines for its clientele this summer, at which producers showed an older vintage alongside the current release. Jean-Charles Cazes of Ch\u00e2teau Lynch Bages suggested such an initiative could become an annual commercial proposition, with producers offering library stocks of an older vintage at the same time as the new wine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the comments in the 67 Pall Mall London Fine Wine Trends Report, one Member pointed out that, \u2018At least with Burgundy [en primeur], you get to try the wine before you buy it.\u2019 Could more Bordeaux producers replicate the Berry Bros event and show their nascent wines at consumer events in London and elsewhere? There would be huge challenges, says Mathias, given the wines are still barrel samples. \u2018Until it’s in bottle, it’s quite difficult to taste, and it’s all subject to change. Then there’s the practical aspect of how well such a sample travels [Cazes didn\u2019t even bring his 2024 wine to the Berry Bros tasting for that exact reason]. Whereas with Burgundy, you\u2019re tasting more or less bottled wines.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Peter Mitchell MW (right), wine director of Jeroboams, with critic Matthew Jukes at the merchant’s recent Bordeaux tasting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mitchell says this raises a wider point. \u2018It will never happen, but what they really should be doing is what everyone else in the world does, and that\u2019s selling the wine when it’s ready to drink \u2013 or at least when it’s in bottle. Even if they sold the wine a year further on, when it was a final blend that had had a year in barrel, that would make a lot more sense.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin Hay, Bordeaux correspondent for trade title Drinks Business, argues that there is a broader issue still, and that En Primeur is the symptom not the problem. \u2018Even where price reductions are striking, demand for young top-end Bordeaux has been modest,\u2019 he says. \u2018Bordeaux\u2019s problem today is not about En Primeur being broken. It\u2019s about the lack of global demand for young fine wine and Bordeaux\u2019s historic reliance on precisely such a market. And, of course, the wines inherently needing time in bottle to mature. As Jancis Robinson says, \u2018Traditional customers are getting older and have full cellars. They are not being replaced. Such younger people as are interested in wine have so many more wines to choose from than the slow-maturing reds of Bordeaux.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson calls the threat to the En Primeur system \u2018existential\u2019. Given such portents, what can we expect next year? \u2018The 2025 vintage will be interesting, because all the signs are that it\u2019s going to be an exceptional year,\u2019 says Mitchell. \u2018But a lot of the mutter from the ch\u00e2teaux is that it\u2019s also going to be quite small, which I worry is a sign they\u2019ll try to push the prices up.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Several producers attended Jeroboams’ recent Bordeaux tasting, and as a result, ‘people went away feeling good about the region,’ says the merchant’s wine director Peter Mitchell MW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The chat coming out of Bordeaux is that it’s going to be more or less the same price as 2024, or maybe a small 5-10% increase.\u2019 says Mathias. Mitchell adds: \u2018If they price it in line with \u201924, I think it will sell pretty well. If they discount it a bit further, it will sell very well, because consumers will think that the Bordelais are actually listening.\u2019 Stephen Browett, chairman of Farr Vintners, whose trade in En Primeur has shrunk hugely over the last 15 years (see chart above), doesn’t think producers are in a position to do anything else. ‘Now that everyone is aware how screwed up it is, the hope is that there will be an opportunity for consumers to buy the potentially great 2025s at low prices. It should certainly be a buyer\u2019s market, with proprietors unable to set high prices. We shall see\u2026’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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