Appellations

What is En Primeur?

"En Primeur" or "Primeurs" is the process of buying wine before it is bottled (sometimes known as wine futures).

2023 Bordeaux primeurs are the wines from grapes harvested in Bordeaux in September/October 2023, then aged in barrel at the Chateaux and offered onto the market in May/June 2024.  They will be bottled after approximately 18 months, will be shipped to the UK and made available for delivery in Spring/Summer 2026.

There are several reasons why buying En Primeur can make sense:

  • To buy wines at the best possible price. The whole idea behind "en primeur" is that opening prices are usually (and sometimes considerably) cheaper than prices once available on the open market.  The Chateaux are able to sell their wines early, and the savvy collector secures a prized allocation at the best price, so the thinking goes.

  • To secure rare wines that are made in very limited quantities or which may not be available following release.

  • To ensure perfect provenance direct from the Chateau, and to know the full history of the wine, shipped from Bordeaux direct to professional stroage in a bonded warehouse, free of taxes.

  • To choose a different bottling format for your wines, eg. half-bottles (for sweet wines), magnums, 3 litre double magnums, 6 litre imperials) etc, which are much harder to find later on

NB: For En Primeur there is no minimum order value but we sell by the case of 6 or 12 bottles. 

If you would like your wines to be bottled in special sizes, please let us know. There is usually a small supplement for magnums and double magnums.

Staying in Touch

You can also opt to receive our release updates and summaries by email. We'll be updating the website regularly with news, opinions and recommendations from the critics, and then with releases as they come.

Send in your Wish List

If there are wines of particular interest - do let us know. Do you want to receive updates on all releases or just a select few? If you love St Julien, or if you prefer to look at value wines sub-£300/cs, let us know. You can put together a Wishlist of wines selected by you to follow throughout the campaign, and add notes about your criteria. For all enquiries, please email the team at sales@albanyvintners.com.

Waiting List

If a wine sells out, we can sometimes buy additional quantities later on. Let us know your interest so that we can tell you as soon as it comes back onto our books.

Allocations

Some wines have become even more sought-after than ever and we already know that quantities of the top wines will be limited. Where we are over-subscribed, we will allocate according to the following criteria:

  • Balanced orders
  • Previous en primeur buyers
  • Regular buyers throughout the year
  • Other en primeur orders

En Primeur is always an exciting time once the pace gets going. For more information, please email the team at sales@albanyvintners.com.

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