Guide
En primeur: who buys, who takes the risk, who sets the price
The wine is sold in April, bottled 2 years later, and everyone in the chain is exposed for different reasons.
The short answer
En primeur sells wine still in barrel. Critics and the trade taste samples in Bordeaux about 6 months after the harvest, the estate releases in tranches through brokers and merchants over the following weeks, and the buyer pays now and receives the bottles 1 to 3 years later.
The calendar
The harvest is in September and October. The following April the trade comes to Bordeaux for a week of tastings: in 2026 that week ran from April 20 to 23, with nearly 5,000 professionals from more than 80 countries, and the 2027 edition is set for April 19 to 22. What they taste is a barrel sample of a wine 6 to 8 months old that has not been blended into its final form.
Then the estates release, over the following weeks and sometimes into June, in tranches: a first quantity, then a second, and so on. Between 200 and 300 of the roughly 7,000 Bordeaux properties take part.
The bottles reach the buyer 1 to 3 years later, depending on when the estate ships. In the meantime the wine usually sits in bond, with the duty and tax falling due only when it comes out.
Who is exposed to what
| What they do | What they risk | |
|---|---|---|
| The estate | Makes the wine, sets the release, decides the volume | Selling too cheap in a great year, or not selling at all |
| The courtier | Brokers the sale, advises both sides on the release | Reputation, which is the whole of a broker’s capital |
| The négociant | Buys the allocation and distributes it worldwide | Holding stock nobody wants if the release is misjudged |
| The merchant | Offers it to customers with a closing date | Paying for wine before it exists |
| The buyer | Pays now, receives later | That the wine costs less on release than it did in barrel |
The estate gets paid before bottling, which is the reason the system exists: it funds the cellar 2 years before the wine can earn anything.
Allocations, which is where the pressure lives
A négociant does not order what it wants; it is allocated a quantity, and the allocation is the relationship. Keeping it has meant taking the weak vintages as well as the strong ones, and at times taking other wines from the same owner alongside the one in demand, an arrangement the London trade complained about publicly in 2012.
Why it keeps being declared dead
Because it has failed repeatedly in living memory: the 2008 campaign into the financial crisis, the sluggish 2011 releases, a 2013 campaign a leading merchant described as interest having died, the pandemic cancellation of 2020, and campaigns since where merchants have cut budgets and, in 1 case, sat out entirely over tariffs. In 2012 Château Latour left the system outright: its 2011 was the last vintage it sold en primeur, and it now releases through the same merchants when it judges the wine ready to drink.
It survives anyway, because for an estate with no other way to finance 2 years of stock, nothing has replaced it.
Where to go next
Sources: Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, En Primeurs Week · Decanter, what en primeur is · Decanter, Château Latour leaves en primeur