Buying en primeur

How about sometimes?

There are a few reasons that one should possibly consider buying futures:

To secure a wine, especially small production, that you collect. If you're doing a vertical of Le Pin, Petrus, or some other small production, it can be hard to find after release.

To secure a wine that you want in alternative formats- premium for 375s, 1.5L, or the really big boys is less at futures than after release, when non-standard formats are few and far between.

To ensure storage- can't guarantee re before it comes into merchant's possession, but futures lets one take control of storage as early as possible.

To secure a price (never forget the cost of money over time when considering this).

The last one is the controversial one. There is NEVER a guarantee what prices will do. In general, I've found that I did well getting futures in heavily touted vintages. I'm very glad that I bought 2000 Bdx futures, of 8 bottlings I bought I've seen one offered since release at close to price I paid ($16.67/bottle, I saw at $18 on sale once). Lowest price on others ranged from

In '99 , I only bought Poyferre, and could have gotten for same price (with some searching) a year after release.

I buy wine on futures/prearrival when I know I want to buy at some point, and I happen to have available cash. I bought some 2001 futures because I had some money available, and it's our anniversary. My guess is from a purely financial standpoint I won't save any money. I didn't buy any 2002s. I think with 2003s, I'll mostly pass due to foreign exchanges issues- my choices might be different if I was in Europe.'

best, Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Just to be clear, this is not from personal experience! Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Nils, For me, the only justification is a combined high demand and the promise of increased pricing. To date, the only futures I have invested in were for some 2000 Bdx that I got on first tranche. My biggest concern is the limited chance to taste before buying in these cases, hence my general reluctance to buy futures.

Mark Lipton p.s. Yes, morels (and asparagus) here as well. Tomorrow morning, a morel-asparagus omelet for breakfast! O rapture!

I should state that this was Meyney, savaged by Arpy, which explains it's lack of appreciation compared to others, but it still is currently $20-30 on winesearcher. Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

"Nils Gustaf Lindgren" skrev i melding news:nVFmc.58374$ snipped-for-privacy@newsb.telia.net...

Yes, I've done that for years with your old supplier: Kjaer&Sommerfeldt in Copenhagen at 'den gamle Mønt'. Absolutely reliable as you might well know. However, buying futures was a rather better proposition 15-20 years ago (hey, I got a case of Leoville LC 1982 at about 15USD a bottle, and one of Pichon Lalande -82 at about the same price...). Nowadays future prices are too close to final release prices and I'm reluctant to buy. But K&S give excellent buying advice, selecting from their own tastings in Bordeaux and you may get hold of some very nice bottles not easily available otherwise. The procedure is: you fax the order form, or make a phone call - you receive an invoice, pay it, and two years later you receive a notification that your bottles have arrived, questioning whether you'll retrieve them, have them forwarded to you or have them stored some more years in their cellars (warehouses, actually). I use to send off an e-mail a couple of weeks before going to Copenhagen and pick up a case or two there.. hth Anders

Ja sure, you betcha. :^)

Valuable a lot more than it'll cost you. ;^)

I've bought futures of California wines here in Los Angeles and never had a problem, but recently heard a horror story about some 2000 Bordeaux futures that basically "disappeared" before delivery.

I'd recommend that you buy futures from the winery itself if possible. Second best would be from a merchant you can trust who buys directly from the winery, and preferrably has it shipped from there. IOW, the more hands it passes through the more significant become provenance considerations. That's probably not a common issue though, and even less so in the case of young red wines - which are relatively resiliant at that stage of development.

I'd be more concerned with not getting either my wine or my money back.

If you have to go through a second party to get the wine on futures, it might not be a bad idea to run up a somewhat greater tab at that same establishment prior to plunking down $$$ for something you might never see. That way, when your wine _should_ have showed up, but *doesn't*, you could at least recover the cost of the futures by washing it against your tab. This might be a fairly even trade, but if the price of the wine goes through the roof you could still lose - even if the merchant stiffs you on the futures and calls it even-steven against your 2X tab with him!

Tom S