The En Primeur Game

Influential wine people have been railing against the Bordeaux en primeur system recently, on the back of record levels of trading for the recently released 2005 vintage. Ex-Petrus winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet has called the system a "madness" and Jancis Robinson has understatedly lamented the "shortcomings" of the en primeur "game".

The financial argument against en primeur is roughly that "us poor drinkers shouldn't be forced to tie up our money so far in advance of taking delivery of the wine". As wine journalist Stephen Brook puts it, en primeur is a system "designed to transfer large amounts of cash from your pocket into the pockets of wealthy Bordeaux proprietors and merchants at the earliest possible moment". I don't actually think this cuts the mustard as a reason to get rid of en primeur. Any valuable commodity in short supply will give rise to a futures market. Like it or loathe it, the majority of buyers of top flight Bordeaux are primarily investors, not drinkers. The fact that it is not possible to predict exactly how good a bottled wine will be from a barrel sample is simply another variable to take into account if you want to dabble in an investment that is per se something of a lottery.

Economics aside, I believe there is a much better argument against en primeur in Berrouet's observation that wines now have to be "as seductive as possible far earlier, to the detriment of the Bordeaux style". If the crucial tasting moment becomes the moment of purchase, i.e. the time when the barrel samples are tasted by buyers, winemakers may feel pressure to create younger developing wines aimed to drink well at the moment of en primeur purchase (when they should still be in malolactic fermentation) rather than the ultimate moment of drinking. If this were the case, it would be a sad development for the world's top wines.

I am not qualified enough to know whether or not this trend is in fact yet the case but if it is, what can be done to modify the en primeur system? Presumably some sort of regulatory intervention would be required, either by the French government or at EU level. It is hard to imagine such intervention suceeding on economic grounds - as we have seen, there is no real consumer protection issue at stake and futures markets already exist for almost every conceivable commodity. Intervention would have to come from the wine/agricultural authorities and the case would have to be made on the basis of preserving the quality of the wine, for example by imposing minimum timetables for development of a wine before it can be offered for sale and requiring transparency of volumes produced and offered for sale.

We live in capitalist times and we do to an extent have to accept that. If there are people out there prepared to pay £3,000 for a bottle of wine then - at least in financial terms - that is what it is worth. However, regulatory powers can and should be used to safeguard quality, which, after all, should be the main concern of wine drinkers the world over.

Sources: O. Styles, Decanter

Info Mine - Pétrus

The Wine Mine Blagging Toolkit - 5 wine nuggets with which to impress your friends...

1. Pétrus is a red wine made principally from the Merlot grape in the Pomerol appelation in Bordeaux.

2. The vines on the Pétrus estate are only replanted after they reach 70 years of age. The grapes are hand-harvested only in the afternoon, once the morning dew has evaporated, to avoid absolutely any dilution of the grape juice.

3. Demand for Pétrus far outstrips supply. UK agents Corney & Barrow rigourously control primary allocations on the basis of how much dosh customers have spent in the previous year. Secondary market trading then tends to see prices shoot through the roof - for a bottle of the 2005 vintage today don't expect much change out of £3,000.

4. Photographic records are now kept of every bottle stored at the 11.4 hectare property to combat the growing phenomenon of wine fraud.

5. The company refused to allow the makers of cult wine film Sideways to use Pétrus as the wine which protagonist Miles can never find a special enough occasion to drink. Bah pourquoi?

Info Mine - Phylloxera

The Wine Mine Blagging Toolkit - 5 wine nuggets with which to impress your friends...

1. Phylloxera is a louse which feeds on the roots of grapevines.

2. In the late 19th century, Phylloxera destroyed the majority of Europe's vineyards, hitting France especially hard.

3. North American grapevine roots are tolerant of Phylloxera, whereas European roots are not.

4. The best way to evade the ills of Phylloxera is therefore to "graft" North American rootstock onto your vine (i.e. physically stick the roots and the upper part of the vine together).

5. The only countries in the world not to have been affected by Phylloxera are Cyprus and Chile - both of which are geographically isolated (the former is obviously an island and the latter is hemmed in by the Andes, the Pacific and the Atacama desert).