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Wine Futures

The term Wine Futures (also known as 'En Primeur') refers to buying wine after it is made, but before it is bottled. Cask samples of wines are made available for tasting to wine journalists and large wholesale buyers in the spring following the vintage. The brokers and merchants sell the wine on to their customers. It is generally bottled and shipped around two years later.

In good vintages, wine futures can offer the investor the greatest return; the initial release prices are usually the lowest at which the wines will ever be sold. However, when buying wine futures it is strongly recommended that you deal only with established and reputable retailers and importers.

Bordeaux Futures

Commonly, the wines are released in a number of 'tranches' with each release priced at a different level depending on how the previous one sold.

1997 Bordeaux is an example of a poor vintage where the initial release was priced too high. The 1997s declined in price over the following years.

The Bordeaux 2000 vintage was quite the reverse; a vintage in great demand, it was initially priced too low. The first tranche prices did not appear on Wine-Searcher as the wine merchants reserved their allocations for their best customers. Even those who bought at the second or third tranche prices saw the value of their wines rise quickly.

Table 1: Comparison of the June 2001 "2000 Futures", June 2003, June 2005 and June 2006 price per bottle in USD.

The table shows a 25–36% increase in value in the first two years and a further 40–75% between 2003 and 2006 (an overall increase of between 100% and 150%), even at third tranche prices.

Other Regions

Wine futures are a specialty of the Bordeaux market but the phenomenon is increasingly used in other regions, with wines from Burgundy, California, the Rhone Valley and Italy plus Vintage Port now being offered as futures. In Burgundy, buying wine futures can often be the only way to secure wines that are available in very limited quantities (some properties produce as little as 200 cases a year). The finest Burgundies often disappear into private cellars and are rarely, if ever, seen on the market again.

You can view the prices of the Bordeaux Futures release in the US for 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004, and also UK prices for 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004.

Go to the Fine Wine Investment Advice home page.