Bordeaux En Primeur – time for a change? Author : Ettore Donadeo List of contents Introduction : a brief history of en primeur How the en primeur system works : Bordeaux peculiar trade structure and en primeur functioning Advantages and disadvantages of en primeur : opportunities and risks for producers, négociants and consumers Alternatives to en primeur Conclusion Word Count: 2894.
Introduction “En primeur” is an expression commonly used to indicate the sale of unfinished wine by the producers, particularly in Bordeaux. While the birth of modern Bordeaux en primeur took place in the 20th century, selling wine before it was bottled or stored in cask is a very old practice1. We can find one of the earliest precursor of the system in the 17th century: FrançoisAuguste de Pontac, owner of “The sign of Pontac Head” tavern in London, was the son of Arnaud III de Pontac, then owner of Chȃteau HautBrion, and served only the wine made by his father. Its quality and success made customers ask for future allocations, which the winery granted by mediation of the restaurant.2 En primeur as it is conceived today began to slowly form since 1924, when Chȃteau MoutonRothschild started bottling its own wine, a work that had been traditionally left to the négociants. Particularly after the Second World War, with a smaller wine market, the producers often struggled to make ends meet: buying en primeur was a way to finance them. Négociants had much more strength in determining prices, save the first growths, and the producers, on their part, were happy to have some cash in advance.3 Until the end of the 1960s grapes were also often sold “sur souche” (before being picked), another prototype of en primeur sale, but this practice ended with the disastrous 1969 vintage, when the scarce harvest could not cover all the reserved allocations.4 In 1969 bottling at the property became law for all the St. Émillion properties, followed by the classed growth of Medoc three years later. The start of the modern en primeur can be traced The Oxford Companion to Wine , 3rd ed, s.v. “en primeur” “Wine Futures Part I: En Primeur examined”, accessed July 19, 2015, https://www.ecep.com/media/downloadable/Wine_Futures_Part_1.pdf . 3 JeanGuillaume Prats, “The Origins of En Primeur”, Wine Spectator , March 19, 2007, accessed July 19, 2015, http://www.winespectator.com/blogs/show/id/TheOriginsofEnPrimeur_14777 . 4 “En Primeur, Negociants, Courtiers, The Bordeaux Wine System Explained”, The Wine Cellar insider . accessed July 19, 2015, http://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/winetopics/negociantscourtiersenprimeurbordeauxwinesystem/ . 1 2